I am sorry to hear one of your readers feels our promotion for World Orang-utan Day on Tuesday, August 19, was inappropriate – it was never our intention to cause concern.
World Orang-utan Day is celebrated internationally. It aims to highlight the beauty of these great apes and the dangers facing them in the wild, such as poaching and the illegal pet trade.
Sadly, the number of wild orang-utans has declined by 50 per cent in the past 60 years, and we are working hard to ensure their long-term survival and prevent further destruction of their forest habitat in both Asia and Africa.
On this occasion, we wished to draw the UK public's attention to the seriousness of their plight with a light-hearted campaign offering a benefit to those visitors with natural or dyed red hair.
As a charitable organisation and a visitor attraction, customer relations are very important to us and I want to reassure you we do not endorse any kind of racism or discrimination.
The promotion has, right from the start, extended to dyed red hair, so the offer is in fact open to anyone of any age, nationality or race who wishes to take part and join in.
We are pleased to say we have had an overwhelmingly positive response to this event from thousands of people and we hope that as many visitors as possible will join us on World Orang-utan Day to show their support for this endangered species.
Darren Wood, Head of Marketing, Twycross Zoo