Is it a panda, or is it a dog? It’s a ‘panda dog’

A CorrespondentMay 16, 20245 min

Who doesn’t love pandas? Those cute, fluffy, calm, black-and-white bears are among the cutest in the animal kingdom. Any zoo would love to have them. But when one zoo in China could not get some pandas, it decided to simply fake them, according to a news report.

Taizhou Zoo in the eastern province of Jiangsu came under fire on Chinese social media after deciding to colour two Chow Chow dogs in black and white patterns to look like pandas, for an exhibit. The dogs, originally from north China, were more than happy with all the attention. Unfortunately for the zoo, their wagging tails gave away their non-panda origins.

While the zoo officials told Chinese state media that they never claimed the “panda dogs” to be anything other than what they were, the social media world wasn’t happy with that explanation. State media and social media users criticized the zoo for mistreating the dogs and misleading visitors.

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However, according to a report on NBC News, the dogs are still at the zoo and there has been no change in the number of visitors. Zoo officials maintained that the fluffy dogs were safe and the hair colour posed no risk to them.

This is not the first time “panda dogs” have set off a social media storm in China. Other zoos in the country have also been accused of having fake animals, often dogs they tried to present as wolves or African cats. Clearly, in China, not everything is as it seems.

 

 

A Correspondent

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