Jodie Marsh defended taking a meerkat to the pub during an appearance at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court, and criticized trolls who attacked her animal sanctuary, Fripps Farm.
At Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court, former glamour model Jodie Marsh appears.
Former glamour model Jodie Marsh has defended taking a meerkat to the pub during a court case to appeal against a council’s decision to refuse her application for a wild animal licence to keep lemurs at her animal sanctuary.
The media personality, who trained as a bodybuilder, said online trolls are behind much of the criticism of her animal sanctuary in Lindsell, nine miles north west of Braintree in Essex. The 46-year-old, who owns Fripps Farm, told Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Friday: “I’ve wanted an animal sanctuary since I was five years old – this is my life dream.”
Ms Marsh, who appeared in the ITV series Essex Wives in 2002 and went on to feature in several reality shows and magazines, said that “everybody in the public eye has trolls”, adding: “They lash out, they pick on you, as in my case.” She continued: “When I was bodybuilding they trolled me for that, when I was modelling they trolled me for that; now it’s the animals.”
READ MORE: Jodie Marsh’s unrecognisable new look as she forks out £24k a month to run farm
Her Instagram account describes her as a “former model and documentary maker. Now owner of Fripps Farm animal sanctuary.” Uttlesford District Council last year rejected an application for lemurs to be kept at the animal sanctuary, and Ms Marsh is appealing against this decision.
A report that vet Dr. Stephen Philp prepared for the council that posed questions about whether it was appropriate to grant the license was the subject of a series of inquiries from her attorney Paul Oakley. The vet, according to Ms. Marsh, “basing his evidence on my trolls and neighbors.”
She described as “banter” a comment, made in an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, that she took a meerkat called Mabel to the pub “four nights per week”. “That was banter, that was me being funny,” she said. “Nigel and I laughed the whole time.”
She claimed that she once took the meerkat to a pub to raise money for herself. She continued, “A friend’s pub is a mile from my house, and I would take her there.” It’s a foodie establishment, not a drinking one. In the week, it’s never busy.
She said she would go to the restaurant and have a “bowl of chips or something for my dinner.” She claimed in her defense that “Mabel was in my jumper or in her case the majority of the time when I did take her to the pub.”
She claimed that Mabel, who was “hand-reared from a baby, lives with me in the house as well,” and that “it’s not illegal to take a meerkat in a pub.” When questioned about a different incident, Ms. Marsh responded, “The vet told me to give the llama, and I gave it to her.”
She claimed that she lifted a goose by the neck while filming a video about ducklings “so it wouldn’t attack the baby ducklings” as the goose approached and that the goose was unharmed. She said, “I plopped it (the goose) onto the pond.” I didn’t “throw” or “swim it”
A horse “certainly didn’t bolt” during a photo shoot for a glamour calendar, she claimed. She continued, “The horse wasn’t scared, absolutely not,” adding, “He was only out for about five minutes tops.”
She claimed that the department for environment, food, and rural affairs, who are the only ones who care about animals, was “not overstocked, we have that in writing from Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] who are the only people who matter when it comes to animal welfare.” Ms. Marsh responded to a question from Uttlesford District Council, Mark Smith, regarding noise concerns involving lemurs.
“We’re all set in five acres of land,” she said. She added that her application “didn’t get rejected because of noise – it got rejected because I touched a goose by its neck and took a meerkat to bed with me.” Ms Marsh has previously spoken of how she has helped fund the animal sanctuary through her use of the website OnlyFans.
In 2023, she told BBC Essex that OnlyFans was “amazing” and “paid my staff wages for the first year.” She said: “They all joke and say ‘your boobs pay our wages’.” The case continues.
Source: Mirror
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