Recently, a zoo in Bengbu City, Anhui Province, dyed puppies to impersonate pandas, misleading visitors. After the news sparked attention online, the zoo has removed the dyed dogs.
According to reports from “Cover News,” on April 22nd, a netizen posted on social media that the Zhanggong Mountain Zoo in Bengbu, Anhui, dyed four puppies to impersonate giant pandas and red pandas. Some netizens reposted and commented, “We paid to see red pandas, but it’s actually puppies pretending to be them.”
Photos and videos circulating online show two Samoyeds dyed black and white, and two Pomeranians dyed orange-red. There were informational signs for Pomeranians and Samoyeds hanging near the enclosure, along with a banner saying, “I am a panda, tricking you into thinking I’m a dog.”
The news stirred controversy online, with many netizens saying, “This is consumer fraud,” “If the admission tickets were cheap, even using rabbits to portray pandas would have been accepted just for fun; but if the tickets were expensive, even using real pandas would draw criticism,” and “This is just like what happened in a zoo in Taizhou, Jiangsu.”
Some netizens also questioned the health impact on the dogs from being dyed.
On the 23rd, zoo staff responded that due to recent complaints from visitors, the four dyed dogs in the zoo have been removed.
Previously, in May last year, a zoo in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, dyed Samoyeds to look like pandas as a way to attract visitors, which also sparked controversy.
In February this year, another zoo in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, dyed Samoyeds to resemble tigers to draw visitors.
In April this year, in a zoo in Shaoguan, Guangdong, a small dog was even kept in a wolf enclosure to impersonate a wolf, causing the scared dog to shiver and cower in a corner, raising concerns about animal abuse among netizens. After the video gained attention online, the staff involved were dismissed, and the zoo was temporarily closed for rectification from April 7th to April 14th.