2024-09-24 01:15:24
A Chinese zoo in Shanghai, in the southeastern province of Guangdong, has been showing visitors fake pandas. It soon became clear that instead of the popular bear-like beasts, there are dogs of the bushy Chow Chow breed, painted in the corresponding black and white manner, in the enclosure, reports CNN.
A video is circulating on the Douyin network, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, showing two “pandas” in a paddock. Visitors were shocked to find that the animals had long tails, were breathing heavily and were even barking. The zoo responded to criticism that both animals are “panda dog” breeds. However, under the weight of proliferating videos and photos, the device finally admitted that it had dyed the dogs’ shaggy fur to make them look like pandas.
“We chow dogs are called panda dogs because we are painted and look like pandas. We are kind, smart, friendly, cute and beautiful”, now reads the information board at the paddock. The zoo director said the dogs are one of the main attractions of the facility, which she called a “paradise of strange animals and cute pets”.
This is not the first time someone has repainted an animal to resemble a rarer species. In a zoo in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, for example, they already did the same thing in May this year and passed off the Chow Chow dog breed as a panda after being dyed. In 2019, a Chinese cafe in the southwest of the country offered customers to “transform” their pet dog into a panda for almost 4,900 crowns. In 2018, the Cairo Zoo painted a donkey with black stripes and passed it off as a zebra.
In the Taizhou Zoo in China, two chow chow puppies were painted as pandas to attract visitors, the New York Post reports
Zoo officials said that the size of the enclosure did not allow them to keep real pandas, so they created fake pandas. pic.twitter.com/8o1r3AMoTw
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 7, 2024
You might also be interested in: Cloaking, Sneaking, Waiting. I froze for three years unnecessarily, says the nature documentarian (14/07/2023)
Spotlight Aktuálně.cz – Prokop Pithart | Video: Jakub Zuzánek