Zoo Miami apologises to New Zealand after sparking international incident

Zoo Miami communications director Ron Magill told Radio New Zealand he felt embarrassed by the situation. Source: 1 Breakfast

Video transcript

- Kiwis are incredibly upset-- and Ron, sorry-- incredibly upset and angry at the treatment of our national icon in your zoo. And I'm hoping that you've fronted on our show this morning to apologize and to tell us that these encounters will just cease immediately

RON MAGILL: Well, first of all, absolutely, my most heartfelt profound apology. We were wrong. There is no excuse. It's indefensible. What I saw in that video is indefensible. Those encounters stopped immediately. They will never happen again. I feel embarrassed.

On behalf of everyone here at the zoo, we offer our profound heartfelt apologies. We did wrong. I'm not here to make any excuses. There are no excuses. Certainly, it was not something we did intentionally, but we certainly did not think it through. The forethought was not there. And it is something that we are profoundly, profoundly regretful about.