Jimbo the marmoset was living in a rat cage, surviving on chips and gravy, when staff from Hopefield Animal Sanctuary spotted his owner trying to sell him on Facebook. Today, he's learning how to be a marmoset again — eating the right food, socialising, and living in the kind of environment his species actually needs.
His story is heartbreaking, but at Hopefield, it's far from unusual.
The Essex sanctuary, founded in 1983 by Paula and Ernie Clark, has evolved from rescuing abandoned horses on Rainham marshes to caring for more than 700 animals — including a growing number of exotic species that have no business being kept as household pets.
A sanctuary, not a zoo
Meerkats rescued from a travelling zoo. A macaw found in squalid conditions. Foxes seized from a breeder. Tanuki crammed into rabbit hutches. The animals arriving at Hopefield's gates tell a sobering story about Britain's booming exotic pet trade.
But here's the twist that makes Hopefield's mission both admirable and bittersweet: the sanctuary can only show its exotic residents to the public for six days a year.
When the sanctuary looked into obtaining a Zoo Licence, it discovered the requirements clashed fundamentally with its values. The licence would have demanded they euthanise animals dumped at their gate, run a conservation breeding programme, and remove "imperfect" animals from public view. For a rescue operation built on the promise of a home for life, that was a non-starter.
"We were informed that we would have to be a zoo first and foremost, with the rescue element being a secondary part of our identity," the sanctuary has explained.
So instead, Hopefield hosts three Exotic Animal Weekends across the year — six precious days when visitors can meet the meerkats, marmosets, parrots, skunks, palm civets and foxes who call the sanctuary home.
Meet the residents
Every animal here has a name and a story. There's Blue, an 18-year-old macaw rescued from grim conditions, who is still learning to trust people and has a reputation for lunging at anyone who gets too close too fast. There are Lori, Andre, Rio, Tubs, Shy and Masai — six meerkats who arrived from a travelling zoo that could no longer afford to keep them. And there's Takara, one of 12 tanuki at the sanctuary, rescued from a life confined to a rabbit hutch.
Then there are Kiera and Mia, two fox cubs taken from a breeder who intended to sell them as pets. Kiera arrived sluggish and poorly; a vet visit revealed ear mites and a stomach infection. Today, both foxes are thriving — though they remain, as the sanctuary cheerfully notes, "noisy and impossible to litter train."
Your chance to visit
The 2026 Exotic Animal Weekends take place on 6–7 June, 1–2 August and 3–4 October, from 10am to 4pm. Alongside the animal trail, there's a BBQ, a bar and a soft play bus for younger visitors. Standard passes and season tickets aren't valid on these dates — separate tickets are required.
Every ticket sold goes directly toward the lifelong care of Hopefield's residents. It's a model built on principle rather than profit: rescue first, exhibition second, and never the other way around.
Paula and Ernie Clark, who both received MBEs for their work before passing away in 2009 and 2011, would surely approve.
