A zoo in China is under fire after visitors discovered they dyed a couple of dogs black and white to resemble panda bears.
Videos of the encounter, which have since been posted to Chinese social media, show two ‘pandas’ in an exhibit at the new Taizhou Zoo, which recently opened in Jiangsu province on May 1. While the animals are dyed to resemble giant pandas, the international symbol of China, visitors quickly notice their wagging tails, which tells another story.
According to Zoo officials, the dogs were Chows Chows, a large fluffy breed that originates from northern China. They were dyed black and white to resemble China’s endemic pandas, though the zoo maintains they did not make any false claims as the animals were always advertised as ‘panda dogs’ and not ‘pandas’.
The ‘panda dogs’ are currently still at the exhibit at the zoo, where groups of people are coming to see them on a regular basis.
Despite that, the zoo, which does not have any real giant pandas, has been criticized by zoogoers and state media for misleading guests and mistreating the dogs.
One commenter wrote on Weibo that ‘it’s not funny to dye [those dogs] just to attract tourists’. They said they have naturally thick coats and ‘fragile skin’, which makes them prone to skin infections.
Officials from the zoo, however, maintains they have not harmed the dogs in the process. One spokesperson compared it to ‘normal people dying their hair’ and claimed the dog’s fur ‘is the same as hair’.
Other ‘Fake Animal’ Incidents In China
This is not the first time that dogs were dyed to resemble giant pandas in China.
In 2019, a dog café located in Sichuan province came under fire after they dyed six Chow Chows black and white to look like pandas.
In 2020, a video showing a woman walking a ‘panda’ went viral on Chinese social media. It was later revealed to be another Chow Chow whose fur was dyed black and white by its owner.
Several other zoos in China have also been accused of keeping ‘fake animals’. In 2013, a zoo in the Henan province replaced a lion with a Tibetan mastiff dog after the former was sent to a breeding center. The ‘lion’ was quickly exposed as a fraud once it started barking at visitors from its exhibit.
More recently last year, a zoo in Zhejiang province was accused of dressing up humans as Malayan sun bears after a video of the ‘animals’ standing up went viral online. However, experts quickly debunked the accusation, citing that it would be impossible for someone to dress up in a fur suit in such high summer temperatures.
