A surprise announcement by Dublin Zoo last week declared that to highlight Orangutan endangerment they were going to do something very special. Any child with red hair could enter the zoo for free.
Redsers have to cope with enough slagging, so the well meaning offer, was actually found to be highly insulting and was met by mass disgust and dismay.
Melbourne Zoo actually did something similar a few years ago and had to cancel it because of negative reaction from the public. And please bear in mind here that Australians actually call redheads 'rangas' to start off with. So the parallel had already been drawn. But here in Ireland it all came as a bit of a shock.
Orangutans are fabulous animals and there isn't a one of us that doesn't want to see them protected and their survival assured - but equally I don't think anyone actually wants to be compared to one either. Or do they?
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We think this was brilliant marketing from Dublin Zoo and anything that raises awareness of this fantastic animal gets our thumbs up.
