Construction magnate and zoo owner Charles Polidano has been fined €22,000 for several animal welfare breaches at his Montekristo Estates zoo.

Polidano was initially charged with causing unnecessary suffering of wild animals, failing to register animals, transporting swine without written permission, recidivism and an owning an unlicensed zoo.

A court found no evidence of recidivism and that charge was dropped. Polidano was also not found guilty of transporting swine without written permission because that law had been repealed.

The construction tycoon was found guilty of the remaining charges and subsequently fined €22,000.

The legitimacy of Polidano’s Montekristo Estates zoo was brought into question in 2015 when a five-year-old toddler was mauled by a tiger being walked on a leash at the zoo grounds.

Polidano was cleared of the attack in 2019 after the prosecution failed to provide a list of animals being kept at the park and thus failing to show that he was running an illegal zoo.

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