London Zoo to let visitors watch animal operations, with help of £20 million mystery donation

A mock-up of an veterinary operation theatre. — (Image credit: ZSL)

London Zoo is getting an attraction of a rather different kind, and it’s all thanks to a massive £20 million mystery donation.

The Zoological Society of London, which runs London Zoo, has announced plans to open an animal health centre that normal folks will be able to visit to see procedures being done on some of the zoo’s inhabitants.

London Zoo has had veterinarians since the 1830s, not long after its 1826 founding, but this centre takes things to a whole new eye-opening level.

We don’t yet have a date for the opening of the centre, which has been announced amid the London Zoo’s 200th anniversary celebrations.

Just as attention-grabbing is the vet centre is being funded with the help of a £20 million donation from an anonymous source — the biggest in the zoo’s history.

It will be constructed within ZSL’s HQ at Regent’s Park, presumably nearby where the main body of London Zoo itself is.

While the majority of procedures gawkers will be able to nose in on will be routine, like dental checks, there are expected to be post-mortems shown to the public too. One example is of dolphins found dead on beaches around the country — it won’t just be for London Zoo’s own denizens.

“Our history has shaped how wildlife is studied, treated and protected. Now, that legacy becomes a platform for action,” says Kathryn England, ZSL chief executive.

A visit to London Zoo will set you back up to £35 for an adult ticket — that's the peak price with the suggested ZSL bolt-on donation.

The Opposing view

These plans are not without their detractors, though. Long-standing critic of the concept of zoos in general, Born Free, released a statement that references these plans.

“Born Free questions the rationale for ZSL spending a reported £20 million on a state-of-the-art animal hospital with public viewing areas, when efforts to protect wild animals in their natural habitats and support the communities that live alongside them are desperate for support and funding,” the statement reads.

“Conservation efforts can and should focus on protecting animals in their natural habitats, and addressing the root causes of decline such as habitat destruction, climate change, and human-wildlife conflict,” says Chris Lewis, Born Free policy manager.

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Andrew Williams has written about all sorts of stuff for more than a decade — from tech and fitness to entertainment and fashion. He has written for a stack of magazines and websites including Wired, TrustedReviews, TechRadar and Stuff, enjoys going to gigs and painting in his spare time. He's also suspiciously good at poker.