While many people honestly have no idea what noises the iconic Asian bear makes, most realize that the beasts certainly don’t pant and bark like a dog.
Now, a zoo in China is being forced to admit the truth about their “panda” exhibit when one of the creatures inside began to sound more like a dog than the Chinese national animal.
Visitors to a zoo in Shanwei, Guangdong Province were met with quite a sight when they arrived where the giant pandas were supposed to be.
A video of that viral encounter was captured by a video from local Chinese media, seen below:
According to the U.K. Daily Mail, citing Chinese sources, visitors’ suspicions about the “panda” exhibit were confirmed when the animals began barking and panting, behavior giant pandas are not typically known to exhibit.
The zoo subsequently admitted the animals are dogs, specifically Chow Chows, dressed up with black paint to look like pandas.
Denying accusations it tricked visitors, the zoo said it only promised people “panda dogs,” not giant pandas.
Visitors are now demanding their money back from the zoo over the alleged deceit.
Unfortunately for animal lovers in the People’s Republic of China, this is not the first case of panda deceit by way of painted dog.
In May of this year, the Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu Province pulled a similar move with another pair of Chow Chows.
Visitors were similarly shocked to find the pandas they were hoping to see turned out to be canines instead.
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Like the animals that would be seen at the Shanwei zoo months later, these dogs were detailed with black paint to mimic the appearance of giant pandas.
Videos and pictures of these animals, and the audacity of the zoo to pull such a stunt, quickly went viral on Chinese social media. The images made their way across the Pacific, where the story was rekindled in the United States.
A clip below shows the Taizhou zoo’s own “panda dogs.”
“There are no panda bears at the zoo,” a Taizhou zoo representative then said, “and we wanted to do this as a result.”
The representative also dismissed concerns about the potential cruelty of painting these dogs and putting them on display as another animal entirely, saying “people also dye their hair.”
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