A Chinese zoo has caused outrage and ridicule after it emerged they had coloured dogs to look like tigers after dying other dogs to look like pandas.
The images of the poor dogs have emerged after another Chinese zoo made international headlines after it was revealed that it had painted dogs to look like pandas, something this zoo apparently did too.
The Qinhu Bay Forest Animal Kingdom, a zoo in Jiangyan district, in Taizhou city in East China’s Jiangsu province, has been mercilessly mocked by netizens after a live stream in which it had apparently coloured Chow Chow dogs to look like tigers.
The Chow Chow is a type of dog breed originally from Northern China. Previously, the zoo had also reportedly coloured dogs to look like pandas.
Footage of the dogs shows them coloured with an orange dye and black stripes.
But the videos are fooling no one, as it is very clear that the images show two dogs and not tigers.
The images were also shared on Douyin, which is what TikTok is called in China, on 24th January.
Netizens were not duped, with one saying: “Isn’t that just a dog?”
Another netizen shared a picture of their cat, jokingly captioning it: “My black Bengal tiger.”
One netizen speculated: “They definitely don’t dare to bathe their dogs for fear of discolouration.”
And another joked: “A big tiger with a dog-like temper!”
The zoo reportedly began operating in August 2024 and is said to cover 600 acres.
Previously, the zoo had also reportedly coloured Chow Chow dogs to look like pandas, much like a park in Guangdong that allows visitors to see “rare and exotic animals”.
The Guangdong zoo had initially claimed it had not misled people as it did not claim the animals were pandas, explaining instead that they were, in reality, “panda dogs”.
However, when quizzed by local media, they admitted that they had dyed two Chow Chows.
After being contacted by local media, the Qinhu Bay Forest Animal Kingdom confessed and said: “It was a native Chow Chow dyed into a ‘tiger dog’, not a tiger.”
They also 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.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
