HE is nothing if not controversial and throughout his life David Gill has continued to hit the headlines. Now, for the first time since a series of scandals hit the zoo he built up from scratch, the 56-year-old has given a 'no holds barred' interview to reporter AMY FENTON .

WHETHER you love him or hate him few people in Furness will fail to have an opinion about self-confessed controversy courter David Gill.

In today's, Saturday's and Monday's Mail we are running a series of articles in which the man who was once dubbed Dalton's Dr Dolittle looks back candidly at his life and opens up about what really happened during some of his more infamous moments.

Today's feature sets the scene with Gill looking back at how his zoological empire came about; from the humble beginnings of his animal rescue centre in the back garden of his Romney Avenue home to becoming a hugely-popular attraction welcoming 100,000 visitors by only its second year.

Speaking from the now empty family home he built in a bid to get the bank's backing for his plans to open a wild animal park in Dalton the 56-year-old admits he has, in the past, had his fair share of "bad publicity".

"They say no news is bad news, and it's not something you should crave, but I've always tried to look on the bright side," he says.

"If you've ever watched The Greatest Showman , the main character courted controversy, and no one would go to his circus unless they were interested. In a way that's what I did."

In the 24 years since he first opened what was then called South Lakes Wild Animal Park Gill has, as he will admit, mellowed somewhat, but he has never been one to shy away from the limelight.

While he will accept that he bears ultimate responsibility, as licence holder, for the events during his reign which spans from 1994 until January 2017, it is only fair to Gill to point out that some of the incidents which have hit the headlines in recent years took place after his tenure came to an end.

A BBC documentary screened last month, Trouble at the Zoo , was based on filming which took place after the new Cumbria Zoo Company Limited took over the park last January. As a result of revelations in the documentary the RSPCA launched a new investigation into animal welfare concerns which has since been concluded.

"At the end of the day, responsibility falls to me, at times I've said too much or not enough but the only thing that has ever driven me is my love of animals and commitment to animal conversation," Gill adds.

"I'm not passing the buck, but because I was 'the zoo', it was my baby, I'm the only shareholder everything fell onto my shoulders but I can't be everywhere at once and sometimes I only heard about things well after they happened.

"I'm not undermining anything or anyone but of all the criticism I've faced I've honestly and genuinely only ever been driven by my love of animals.

"I'm not a bad guy; yes I've said things I shouldn't and been a bit outspoken, but I wouldn't have done any of this and not walked away if my priority was to the animals."

From a back garden filled with rescued animals to a sprawling safari park: How Gill's zoo empire grew

NO matter what you think of David Gill the zoological empire he built up from scratch was nothing short of one of South Cumbria's biggest success stories.

Gill's interest in animals started way back when he was a youngster growing up in Dalton. Peddling his Gemini bicycle along rural lanes from the age of nine he spent every weekend at St Helen's Farm in exchange for a cooked breakfast and lunch.

"When I got my own house in Dalton I started rescuing injured animals," he recalls.

"I had a job working for an animal feed company called Dugdale Nutrition, and I would something come across animals that would get put down, on one farm this farmer brought in two goat kids and said they would be dead in a few minutes as they weren't needed, I begged him to let me have them and took them back to the farm."

From there his empire grew when Gill moved into his Romney Avenue home where his two acres of land were quickly filled with ducks, chickens, raccoons, wallabys and exotic birds. Then one morning everything changed.

"I suppose I had my Damascus Road experience," he recalls.

"I woke up one morning and decided 'I want to change the world, to educate people, to save animals, to have a wild animal park. Most people thought I was totally crazy particularly some of my family.

"I had to give up my whole career it was a big risk but I felt it was my mission. I sold my house and set about building the park."

The banks didn't quite share Gill's vision and were reluctant to lend him the £177,000 he needed to build the safari park on land off Broughton Road just outside of Dalton.

"The only way they'd agree to do it was if it included an asset so I used the money to build this house (Gill's former home on the edge of the zoo's site) and then we just went from there."

On Friday May 24th, 1994, Gill opened his doors to the public. Tickets cost £1.80 for kids and £2.75 for adults.

The public lapped it up. There was little else, on that scale, within Furness which had the ability to draw in families from both the local community and beyond. From there the zoo grew and its animal family expanded to include some of the world's rarest animals including endagered Sumatran tigers.

"We budgeted for 10,000 visitors a year in that first year but the first weekend alone drew in 1,500 people," Gill says.

"It became quite an attraction. By year two we had 100,000 visitors and until I retired visitor numbers grew and the business grew every single year."

Gill on: Zimba the white rhino's escape and 'that' photograph

THROUGHOUT his colourful and often controversial career the date of May 3 1997 will undeniably go down as one of David Gill's darkest days.

"Things happen that are not predictable," he said as he recalls the escape of 3.5 tonne white rhino Zimba.

The rare rhino broke free from its compound and smashed through a perimeter fence before it was eventually located and shot simultaneously by then 36-year-old David and police marksman John Paton.

Highlighting the reporting on Radio 1 which claimed Zimba was "running down the A590" as the news broke, something which has since been ingrained into Furness folklore, David is quick to point out Zimba never left the zoo's site.

"I waited until the very last opportunity to shoot. I knew I couldn't let it get out of the zoo," he said.

David was later fined £1,500 and now, as with some of the other incidents at the zoo, he speaks frankly and for him, somewhat humbly, about his previous reluctance to accept responsibility.

"In the past I have been known to speak out, perhaps in hindsight I should have been more careful, but I'm just so passionate about this place," he said.

"I'm not saying the responsibility wasn't mine, ultimately it was, but that was one of the saddest days of my life. This place was my home, the animals were part of my family, and no one regretted that incident more than me."

Zimba's escape wasn't the only regrettable incident in David's career relating to the white rhino.

In what has become a well-known photograph, David was pictured by a former Mail reporter sitting astride the animal, just a few days before the escape and something he now says is one of his "biggest regrets".

"I could say I was encouraged to do it by the photographer, and it's easy to get carried away in the moment, but that is something I regret doing," he said.

"The Zoological Society didn't like it; they dragged me in and said 'that's not the image we want to portray'.

"In the early days, I thought of myself a bit like The Greatest Showman , I courted controversy and was of the view that there's no such publicity as bad publicity but I've mellowed as time has passed."