Ex-model tells court why she took meerkat to pub

Jodie Marsh told a hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court "it's not illegal to take a meerkat in a pub"

Former model Jodie Marsh defended taking a meerkat called Mabel to the pub as she appealed against a licensing decision involving her animal sanctuary.

Ms Marsh was at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Friday to fight the refusal of an application for a wild animal licence to keep lemurs.

The media personality, who trained as a bodybuilder, said online trolls were behind much of the criticism of Fripps Farm in Lindsell, near Braintree, in Essex.

Ms Marsh, 46, said: "When I was bodybuilding they trolled me for that, when I was modelling they trolled me for that; now it's the animals."

Ms Marsh, who set up a sanctuary in 2020, said she took the meerkat to "a friend's pub a mile from my house"

Uttlesford District Council rejected her application in July 2024.

At Friday's hearing, Ms Marsh's lawyer Paul Oakley asked her about a report, prepared for the council by vet Dr Stephen Philp, which raised questions about whether it was appropriate to grant the licence.

Ms Marsh said the vet was "basing his evidence off my trolls and neighbours".

Mr Oakley asked her about a comment she made in an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News that she took a meerkat called Mabel to the pub "four nights per week".

Ms Marsh told the hearing: "That was banter, that was me being funny."

She said she had taken the meerkat to a pub "on a few occasions" when the animal was being hand-reared.

Ms Marsh added: "It's not illegal to take a meerkat in a pub".

She was asked about an incident where she lifted a goose by the neck while filming a video about ducklings.

"I plopped [the goose] on to the pond," she said.

Ms Marsh said it had not been hurt in the incident, and she had stopped it attacking the ducklings.

She told the court the animal sanctuary was "not overstocked, we have that in writing from Defra who are the only people who matter when it comes to animal welfare".

Asked by Mark Smith, for the council, about issues of noise in relation to lemurs, Ms Marsh said "the noise was never a factor".

"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 appeared in the ITV series Essex Wives in 2002 and went on to feature in several reality shows and magazines.

She founded Fripps Farm, which looks after animals including alpacas, emus and reptiles, in 2020.

She 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".

The case was adjourned part-heard until 28 May, when it will resume at Colchester Magistrates' Court.