"These children were at the zoo Saturday for an orientation session to participate in a hands-on, interactive project to design murals for construction fencing at the zoo's future African Village exhibit. The orientation packet given to the children for their parents that day contained an authorization form explaining the TB requirement in order to participate in the mural project. Because a volunteer clinic was on zoo grounds administering annual testing for zoo staff, the zoo staff coordinator of the program mistakenly saw this as a convenience for the kids. Her intent was to save the parents two trips to the doctor: one for the testing, one for the reading of the results. The mural project runs until January 2001.

"We deeply regret this mistake. We hope this does not jeopardize the participation of these kids in this exciting mural project. Through this educational project, kids are teamed with zoo resident artists and taught about East African cultures and the ecology of the African Savanna. The zoo will be making a formal apology to each parent with the Oromo Community Center and to other parents whose children are participating. We will focus our efforts on rectifying this situation and rebuilding trust between these communities and the zoo while being sensitive to their respective community's cultural nuances and subtleties.

"As a standard Woodland Park Zoo procedure, each and every zoo staff member and registered zoo volunteer is required to undergo an annual testing for TB. This is to safeguard the individuals who come in close contact with the animals as well as our animal collection. Our primates, particularly, are also tested annually. We will ensure in the future that we adhere to our standard procedure, which is to send minors to their own physician or the Public Health Department. Under no circumstances does the zoo require TB testing for zoo visitors or participants enrolled in public classes. This is a requirement for zoo staff and registered volunteers only."