Uttlesford councillors ban Jodie Marsh from keeping lemurs after she took meerkat and owl to pub
A former glamour model turned animal rescuer has hit out at Uttlesford District Council (UDC) after it banned her from keeping lemurs at her private sanctuary.
Jodie Marsh, 45, claimed the authority was “completely corrupt” and had a “vendetta” against her after an application for a dangerous wild animal licence was rejected by UDC’s licensing and environmental health committee on Monday (July 15).
Her project, Fripps Farm Animal Rescue, a community interest company (CIC), in Lindsell, near Dunmow, has provoked opposition and criticism from residents.
The hearing was told she had twice taken a baby meerkat she was hand-rearing to a pub. Ms Marsh insisted at the hearing that the animal could not be left alone at the time.
The committee was told that on another occasion, she took an owl to the pub.
The council’s panel raised concerns about these incidents as well as noise from the lemurs – primates indigenous to Madagascar – and their impact on the community.
Reading out its decision, committee chairman Cllr Richard Freeman said: “The incident with the meerkat highlighted that the applicant was prepared to undertake significant work to support its development. However, there are aspects whereby the impact of having to undertake this work was not conducive to her wider life and this led to her making the decision to take the animal to the pub on at least two occasions. The panel is not convinced by her approach or responses which were given.” He said the panel was similarly unconvinced by her explanation relating to the owl.
Cllr Freeman said: “The panel is concerned that Jodie Marsh has a perception, which she portrayed to the panel, that the animals in her care – and, by extension, the animals applied for under the licence – are her personal pets.
“This perception has the capacity to run counter to the needs of the animals and may result in poor judgements as to the balance between the appropriate care and attention and the desire to promote the CIC.
“The panel has on balance concluded that they are not satisfied that the applicant... is a suitable person to hold a licence.
“The panel has also carefully considered the impact of the proposed group [of lemurs] on nuisance. While it’s not possible to definitively determine whether there would be sufficient impact to form the legal requirements of nuisance, the panel is satisfied... that there is a high likelihood of intrusive additional noise. The panel is content this represents a material risk which also warrants the refusal of the licence.”
Following the meeting, Ms Marsh, who has appeared on TV’s Celebrity Big Brother and Essex Wives, said she was ready to take her application to court.
She accused the council of what she called “wrongdoing” on issues including waste bin collection problems, the late delivery of 2,600 General Election postal vote ballot papers and a Stansted Airport planning application that resulted in UDC being hit with a multi-million-pound bill.
She said: “I believe Uttlesford Council is completely corrupt – there’s so much wrongdoing within the council. I feel disappointed in the council – it’s useless, it doesn’t do anything for the people.
“The council was told if we didn’t get the licence we’d go to magistrates’ court and appeal it. This decision shows that it wants to waste more public money on fighting me over eight lemurs who are going to do no damage to anyone or anything.
“They’re talking about stuff to do with animals that they don’t even know about. This is a panel of people who might have had a pet dog or cat but have never dealt with exotics or anything like what we deal with on a daily basis.
“They’re acting like these lemurs are coming out of a jungle into my garden – they’re not, they’re in someone’s private garden right now and all he wants to do is rehome them because he doesn’t want them any more and hasn’t got time for them. Well, we are about to sue [UDC] and they will lose.
“This is a vendetta against me, it absolutely is. Uttlesford Council has had it in for me from the day I moved to Uttlesford 11 years ago. They have harassed me, treated me unfairly and discriminated against me for 11 years.
A spokesman for the council said: “The panel carefully considered the information available to it and determined that it was not appropriate to grant the licence for the reasons given in the decision notice. This decision was based purely on the relevant information and the legislation.
“Given the applicant has a right to appeal the decision to the magistrates’ courts, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further.”