Significant concerns over animal welfare and the death of an employee eventually led to Gill losing his license to operate the zoo in 2017.

[9] In 2008, he was stabbed in his home on the edge of the zoo by Richard Creary, a former professional rugby league footballer, who found him in bed with his wife.

[5] Until 2015, Gill also operated a "dude ranch" in Wyoming, United States, which charged guests up to £1,627 per week to pretend to be cowboys.

[citation needed] Major attractions in early years included its then-unique in Britain holding of the world's smallest (Sumatran) and largest (Siberian) tiger subspecies.

The zoo had its first major incident in 1997, when a three-ton white rhino escaped from its pen and was subsequently shot dead by owner David Gill in an adjacent field.

[14][15] In 2001, Lara Kitson, a pregnant employee of the zoo, won a case of sexual discrimination and constructive dismissal at a tribunal in Carlisle after she claimed that she was advised to terminate her pregnancy rather than fall short in her job.

Gill said that for staff, who knew many of the lemurs by name, the loss was "devastating", and also that the deaths were "not just a massive blow for the park but for the European Breeding Programmes the animals were involved with.

On 24 May 2013, Sarah McClay, a 24-year-old woman who had been working at the park, was mauled by a tiger during public feeding time and suffered serious injuries to her head and neck.

In 2014, during the investigation an environmental officer from Barrow Borough Council stated that a bolt on the door between the dark den and the keepers' corridor was found to be defective after the attack.

[29] In June 2016, the zoo pleaded guilty to breaches of Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, for failing to maintain the bolt and for allowing the door to be unlocked.

In 2015 David Gill received an official warning, after Barrow Borough Council considered closing the park[32] as a result of a flock of sacred ibis escaping in July and October 2013.

[33] 13[32] to 18[34] of the birds were shot, and Gill was found guilty of three offences of allowing a protected animal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to escape into the wild.

[35] This conviction formed part of the reason as to why Gill's licence was not renewed in 2017, according to the head of Barrow Borough Council's licensing subcommittee.

[39] At the same time, park owner David Gill announced his intention to retire from his managerial position, handing over responsibility to the Safari Zoo Nature Foundation.

The Zoo was subsequently refused a licence, with Gill again suggesting a move to a site in South Lakeland District Council.

[43] Gill reapplied for a licence in November 2016,[44] although inspectors in the same month said that giraffes at the park were at danger of dying due to inadequate facilities.

[47][48] The deaths included an African spurred tortoise dying after being electrocuted in fencing,[47] the decomposing body of a squirrel monkey being found behind a radiator,[47] a leopard tortoise dying from the cold,[47] two snow leopards found partially eaten in their enclosure,[47] a white ruffed lemur killed after accessing the wolf enclosure,[47] lions and baboons euthanized due to a lack of space to keep the animals,[34] and a jaguar euthanised after it chewed off its own paw.

[34] The Captive Animals' Protection Society (CAPS), who called South Lakes one of the worst zoos it had ever seen,[49] stated that many of these deaths were preventable.