A Chinese zoo has admitted that the pandas in its enclosure are actually “painted dogs.”
According to the The New York PostVisitors to Shanwei Zoo realized they were being fooled when the so-called pandas began panting and barking. Pandas are native to China and are an international symbol of the country.
In a visitor’s video, one of the “pandas” was visibly panting as it rested on a rock in a fence, while another clip showed a panda with a long tail walking around.
“It’s a PANdog,” one user wrote, while someone else joked: “It’s the Temu version of a panda.”
“They were panting, that’s why they’re pandas,” noted a third.
After visitors reported the ploy on social media, organizers admitted to painting two Chow Chows — a long-haired dog breed native to northern China — with black-and-white panda motifs. Visitors have since demanded their money back for false advertising.
This is not the first time a Chinese zoo has deceived visitors by claiming to house real pandas.
In May, NBC News reported that the Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu province had also painted chow chows. Zoo officials initially claimed the animals were a rare breed of “panda dogs,” before admitting that such animals do not exist. At the time, zoo officials told Chinese state media that they had introduced them as “panda dogs” and had not intentionally misled anyone.
When asked by reporters why they came up with the idea of ”panda dogs” to cover their tracks, a zoo representative explained: “There are no pandas at the zoo, and that’s why we wanted to do this.”
At the time, state media and the general public criticized the zoo for also mistreating dogs.
“It’s not funny at all to dye Chow Chow dogs to attract tourists,” wrote one user on the social network Weibo, China’s equivalent of X, formerly Twitter. “Their fragile skin and naturally thick coats make them vulnerable to skin diseases.”
However, authorities defended their choice to paint the dogs, stressing that they were not harmed by the dye, and argued that if humans could do it, so could dogs.
“Normal people dye their hair,” said one representative. Qilu Evening Journal“Dogs can dye their fur too. It’s like hair.”
From a dog cafe in the southwestern province of Sichuan dyeing six Chow Chows to look like pandas in 2019 to a woman in the same province walking a “panda dog” in a viral video in 2020, it doesn’t appear that this zoo practice is a coincidence.
