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ZOO BEGINNINGS
Homemade slime made me a TikTok star at 12 – but I got death threats & my mum was charged after stupid mistake
The social media star was branded a 'moron' and narrowly dodged a fine - now he's found a way to make amends
TWO years ago Kyle Thomas was one of Britain's biggest teenage TikTok stars with a whopping one billion likes, earning thousands of pounds in the process.
He had even been hailed by Forbes as one of the most influential online content creators under the age of 30.
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Kyle, now 20 – who started selling homemade slime at 12 and went viral after posting a video of him biting it – couldn’t put a foot wrong.
But in July 2022, his status as a super cool TikTok star evaporated overnight when he ‘stupidly’ posted a video of him larking around with his new exotic pet - a capybara.
He had named the rodent, which resembles a large guinea pig, Queen Elizabeth after the late Queen and filmed her wearing a pumpkin cloak and a silver ring.
It prompted a vicious backlash and a barrage of death threats - with animal lovers accusing him of treating the exotic pet like a baby.
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But worse was to come.
Just one week after he’d forked out £5,000 for the capybara, it fell ill and passed away.
His local vet in Northern Ireland immediately contacted the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs after they discovered both Kyle and his mum, Zena Foord, did not have an official licence to look after it at home.
In August 2023 Zena was charged with Keeping Dangerous Wild Animals With No Licence between 6 October 2022 and 24 October 2022.
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She pleaded guilty but evaded an up to £2,000 fine by quickly snapping up a licence from the Department of the Environment.
But by then the controversy had hit the influencer’s squeaky-clean reputation hard.
Who is Kyle Thomas' mum Zena Foord?
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He was trolled relentlessly with many branding him a "thicko", "moron" and "a TikTocker (sic) who had no grasp on reality"; in his "sad and desperate" attempt for likes.
One follower told him it was a ‘shame the rodent doesn’t eat him’ and he was included in a major Channel 4 investigation into the exotic animal trade.
He was also forced to go to the police after receiving several terrifying death threats.
'Stupid & naive'
Now, two years since the controversy first blew up, Kyle admits he is still being trolled over his past - and the threats continue.
He will appear in the new BBC3 documentary We Built A Zoo on Wednesday, which he hopes proves he is a changed person and admits being "stupid and naïve”.
If I had read an article like the one about me, I would have absolutely thought this person was a thicko and an idiot
Kyle Thomas
He told The Sun: “Looking back on it all now, it was a very stupid decision.
"I am not going to lie; I was incredibly naïve.
"I cannot blame anyone who is looking after the rights of animals for saying what they did.
“But I was trolled a lot and I received death threats that I had to report to the police.
"I was terrified of going to the local supermarket because I feared people would see the newspapers and think I was a terrible person.
"It was a really tough time. I had been very stupid.
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“And two years later, people still troll me over it all.
"They also troll me over being too skinny, they dig into my personal life and I still get nasty threats.
"Only yesterday I got this weird message from a person who told me they knew where I lived.”
However Kyle, who was earning £32,000 a year before the incident, now agrees with trolls who called him a ‘moron’ and a ‘thicko’.
"Fair play," he says. “If I had read an article like the one about me, I would have absolutely thought this person was a thicko and an idiot.
"In fact now, when I see online videos of people cuddling up with a meerkat, I have to stop myself from leaving a negative comment.
The bloody idiot who lied through his teeth all the time, telling us ‘yeah you can have this pet, she is really friendly’
Kyle
"Most of the trolls were looking out for animals for the right reasons.
"They might be extreme sometimes in what they are saying but they aren’t bad people - they are looking out for the welfare of animals.”
Rash decision
Kyle, who is single and lives with his mum in Belfast, said in hindsight he should never have been so gullible as to believe a local trader flogging the capybara.
“It was very expensive, one hundred per cent,” said Kyle.
“I don’t even think we had a chance though to think about the money loss.
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"It was more a case of 'what the hell has happened and how did we stumble into the situation?'
"We’d stupidly done no research and believed the bloody idiot who lied through his teeth all the time, telling us ‘yeah you can have this pet, she is really friendly’.
"We naively didn’t think we were doing anything wrong.
"I am the type of person to make rash decisions – but they come from good intentions.”
Fresh start
Now Kyle is older, wiser and a lot more clued up.
After attempting to set up his own ‘makeshift zoo’ on some land he purchased after his monumental mess up, he has now joined forces with local builder, Phil Hughes, who had also started to care for rescued animals.
The exotic animal trade is a dark, horrible place
Kyle
As well as proper facilities to house the 28 or so animals, including meerkats, marmosets and African hedgehogs, they have ensured they have all the correct legal paperwork in place at their new sanctuary called the Mylo Project.
“Phil reached out to me when everything was kicking off,” he explained.
“Initially I didn’t reply as I wasn’t trusting too many people at the time but eventually I did.
"Now we have joined forces together and we both have the same goal – to care for rescued animals and let them thrive.”
Kyle has also spent time educating himself by reading, listening to podcasts and visiting worldwide wildlife sanctuaries, including one in South Africa, to understand more.
He is determined, too, to use his high-profile TikTok platform to campaign for better animal welfare.
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“I have grown up a lot,” he added.
“I have been on a huge journey of personal growth and I am on a journey now to become an animal activist too.
"The exotic animal trade is a dark, horrible place.
"I know a few years ago, I thought nothing of cuddling up to a Meerkat but there is no way I would do that now.”
Keen to attract a wider audience away from his huge TikTok platform, Kyle also hopes his unflinching honesty and no-holds-barred BBC3 documentary will prove, once and for all, that he is passionate about animal welfare and really does mean it when he says he wants to do everything properly.
The UK's exotic animal trade
NEARLY three thousand exotic animals are legally being kept by private homeowners in the UK.
Among the creatures are crocodiles, wild cats, monkeys and venomous snakes.
But animal rights organisations are deeply concerned by how the animals made their way to the UK.
The UN revealed that for every one chimpanzee in private ownership, which is legal in the UK, another 10 have died during their capture or from poor trade conditions.
Those who have been raised in breeding grounds fair no better when it comes to their welfare.
The EcoHealth Alliance fears the capture of animals in the wild will deplete native populations by 70 per cent.
Organisations are also concerned that owners do not know how to care for them - as proven by data the RSPCA received 15,790 calls to their cruelty hotline about exotic pets alone.
Other concerns include the animals escaping and some not being suited to domestic life.
“I do hope this documentary will show everyone the person I really am,” he said.
“I think people think I live in this happy ‘La La land’.
"I hope this will show I am actually a sensitive and serious person too.”
In the BBC3 doc, Kyle doesn't try to gloss over difficult topics nor does he stray from his promise to educate his 34.5 million followers who, despite the trolls, have loyally stuck by him.
Regular videos set at his new sanctuary attract hundreds of thousands of likes every day.
“I don’t ever want to make money out of looking after animals,” he stressed. "I want everyone to come on my journey with me.”
While Kyle is eying up future opportunities - including modelling, after working at Milan Fashion Week - he has ruled out OnlyFans - despite some of his mates earning a massive £100,000 per month from the steamy online platform.
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“I wouldn’t be able to do it, I would lose my dignity," he said.
"I can’t even kiss someone without worrying about it, let alone exploiting myself over the Internet!”
Looking ahead, the changed TikTok star says he would love to go on further formal courses as well as continue to visit global sanctuaries to learn from them.
And if the internet were to ever blow up, he added, he would retrain as a vet.
“I would go to Uni and study,” he said. “Or go into wildlife presenting if I could.
"I am proud of this documentary and it is a good representation of me.
I can’t even kiss someone without worrying about it, let alone exploiting myself over the Internet!
Kyle
"If people don’t like it, then OK, I am not their cup of tea.
“My time is far better spent learning about animals now than trying to prove myself to people who don’t like me.
“Chasing more followers online isn’t my goal anymore either, it’s about what I can do to help.
"There are bad people in the world who want to make money from exploiting the animals as pets.
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"If people can see me now, hear my story and see I have grown up a lot, then hopefully people will realise I do care.”
We Built A Zoo airs at 9pm on Wednesday on BBC Three and will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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