SOUTH Lakes Safari Zoo at Dalton-in-Furness has increased its minimum donation offer to winter visitors from £1 to £5.
As reported in last Thursday's Gazette (January 8), the attraction had announced on its website that it was waiving its fixed admission price and asking instead for a minimum £1 donation until February 13, 2015.
However, on Saturday (January 10) the zoo posted on its Facebook page that there would now be a minimum donation of £5 per person, from 10am that day until February 13 this year.
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In its post, the zoo explained the reasons behind its minimum donation policy: "This idea was devised to give opportunity to those in our communities that are less fortunate and to assist larger families. The other reason was to enable us to employ ALL our full-time staff all year round instead of laying off over 20 people for five months.
"Sadly we got it wrong this year because the fact that so many people only give £1 or attempted to get in for free has left the zoo not able to cover its costs and continue to employ all of its staff.
"It costs over £8,220 per DAY in overhead costs to run the safari zoo."
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