A Chinese zoo has sparked outraged after it painted dogs orange and white and presented them as tigers after it was ridiculed for pulling a similar stunt to make pooches look like panda bears.
A video shared on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, shows a Chow Chow puppy covered in black and orange stripes as it runs around and plays in its enclosure in the Qinhu Bay Forest Animal Kingdom zoo in Taizhou.
Social media users were not fooled however, as they quickly noticed that the animal captured on camera was not a big cat.
‘Isn’t that just a dog?’, one social media user wrote.
Another joked: ‘They definitely don’t dare to bathe their dogs for fear of discolouration.’
After being contacted by local media, the Qinhu Bay Forest Animal Kingdom confessed that the animal was a native ‘Chow Chow dyed into a ‘tiger dog’, not a tiger.’
Separate images showed two dogs which are native to China, which are supposed to be white, sporting the animal print.
The zoo claimed that dying the dogs had just been ‘a gimmick’, although they said that all the dogs had been dyed professionally and there was no risk to their health.
A Chinese zoo has been ridiculed for painting dogs orange and black so that they look like tigers
Footage shows dogs painted as tigers in the Taizhou Zoo located in Jiangsu Province, China, undated
he video was shared on Douyin the Chinese version of TikTok
This is the latest deceitful move from the zoo, after it reportedly painted puppies black and white so that they looked like pandas.
The zoo is not the only facility in China to get caught up in fake animal scandal.
Back in September, visitors demanded their money back from a zoo in Guangdong after they were misled into thinking that the pandas on display were in fact pandas.
After relentless quizzing by local media, the zoo was forced to admit that they had dyed two Chow Chows.
Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu Province also sparked fury in May when it too allegedly dyed small Chow Chow dogs to look like pandas.
These dogs had their fur trimmed short before black and white dye was added to their face and body.
The attraction was quickly slammed by locals who accused the zoo of animal cruelty
The zoo defended showing the ‘panda dogs’ as they don’t have any of the actual animals for visitors to see.
This is the latest deceitful move from the zoo, after it reportedly painted puppies black and white so that they looked like pandas
Another zoo was mocked for painting dogs black and white so that they resembled pandas
Visitors said they became suspicious when the ‘pandas’ started panting in their enclosure
A zoo spokesperson said at the time: ‘A lot of people are coming to visit them and you need to queue up.
‘There are no panda bears at the zoo and we wanted to do this as a result.
‘You can see them from between 8.30am and 5pm.’
The spokesperson also hit back at the cruelty accusations, saying: ‘People also dye their hair. Natural dye can be used on dogs if they have long fur.’
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
