"London's wildest night out!" reads the poster. Zoo Lates is an event run throughout the summer by London Zoo that invites people to visit the animals after hours and serves alcohol on site.

Visitors are allowed to roam freely, after hours, under the influence of alcohol. People are careless enough to trample butterflies in the butterfly enclosure and disturb animals that probably just want to rest after a long day of being gawked at and pestered by visitors.

I think London Zoo's "Zoo Lates" events are incredibly foolish and show that the priority is profit and not the welfare of the animals in care.

A report in the Daily Mail said: "Recent incidents include a woman punching a bird, a male visitor pouring beer on a tiger, a reveller stripping off before attempting to enter the penguin enclosure and butterflies routinely squashed underfoot. There are also claims that a drunken woman tried to get into the lion enclosure. The animals are said to have been disturbed by loud noise and flash photography at the parties. Sources at London Zoo are said to have raised serious concerns about the impact on animals’ sleep and stress levels."

Having people that are drunk and rowdy banging on their enclosures and shouting must be incredibly stressful for all of the animals. A friend of mine went to one of the events and said she left rather promptly, as seeing the lack of respect people had for the animals made her feel ill.

The events this year have ended but London Zoo are already planning more for next year. They need to be urgently reviewed and either cancelled or, at the very least, the consumption of alcohol banned.

There are sensible ways of raising money and it should not be done at the expense of animals' well being or safety.