World of the Bizarre

'Pandas' at zoo in China turn out to be dogs dyed black and white

By T.K. Randall
May 9, 2024

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) When Taizhou Zoo in China's Jiangsu province opened a new "panda" exhibit earlier this month, visitors flocked to the enclosure to view what they assumed would be giant pandas.

To say that they were disappointed by what they actually saw there would be an understatement.

Instead of giant pandas, the new exhibit contained chow chows - a type of dog with a thick coat.

What's more, the dogs had been dyed black and white to make them look like pandas.

The incident sparked a great deal of criticism and debate, with the zoo arguing that it had accurately described its new exhibit as "panda dogs" and that therefore it was not misleading."This is just a new display we offer to visitors," the zoo told local news outlet The Global Times.

"We are not charging extra. The wording featuring chow chow dogs is correct and exactly describes what they are, so we are not cheating our visitors."

This isn't the first time a zoo in China has been accused of these types of shenanigans - back in 2010, a park in Zhengzhou, Henan province tried to pass dogs off as tigers by dying them a different color.

Suffice to say, such tactics tend to backfire once the public actually finds out about them.

You can check out the "pandas" in the video below.


Source: Sky News

Tags: Panda, China