EASTNOR Castle has pulled the plug on its Exotic Animals event, following an online storm over the show's ethics and claims that the tourist attraction could be "contaminated with cruelty".

The event was set to run from Sunday, August 9 to August 13, but now those days are listed as "general admission".

David Littlewood, Eastnor Castle's general manager said: "We have made the decision to cancel our Exotic Animals week following feedback posted on our Facebook page.

"The Exotic Animal week has always been very well received at Eastnor and was based around educating our visitors about these animals and highlighting the associated conservation issues they face."

But he added: "However, the enjoyment and safety of our visitors is paramount and on advice received from external agencies we have decided to cancel the event.

"We are very sorry to all our visitors who were expecting to attend the Exotic Animal week and anyone who has purchased on-line tickets will be refunded in full."

The event was due to be run by Worcestershire-based Tropical Inc, which is run by Stephen Rowlands who, in 2013, was found guilty of not providing a variety of animals with a suitable habitat and was fined.

The RSPCA at the time described "a serious case of animal neglect involving over 70 exotic animals".

Tropical Inc has appeared at Eastnor on several occasions, including in 2013 when it offered "a collection of animals, mini-beats, snakes, spiders, meerkats, skinks and many other cuddly critters and creepy crawlies".

Numerous posts have appeared on the Eastnor Castle Facebook page about the Exotic Animals event, which has now been cancelled.

One Facebook commentator said said: "Cancel this event. Do you really want your Castle and reputation being contaminated with this cruelty?"

Another said: "Shame on Eastnor Castle for booking a mobile zoo for exotic animals.What are you thinking?"

There were other calls for Eastnor to "do the right thing", and the castle has responded to the public concerns by cancelling the attraction.

Contact by the paper has been made with Tropical Inc, to discuss the issue, but a response was still awaited at the time of this posting.