Zoo visitors have described this starving bear as the saddest in the world after it was revealed that staff could only afford to buy it carrots because meat was too expensive.
One horrified visitor, who was not named in local media, said they encountered the sad sight at the Jiulongtan Scenic Area Zoo in Panzhou, in China’s south-western Guizhou Province.
In a video which they published on social media on 11th June, the black bear could barely be recognised as the giant fearsome beast one would expect it to be.
Instead, it looked like it could barely move around on its extremely skinny legs and had an almost invisible waist.
The visitor claimed they spoke to the zookeeper and was told that the lack of tourists left the owner barely able to afford to feed the animals.
In the caption, they said: “The world’s most miserable black bear! It’s so thin that it looks deformed!! The zookeeper said the owner has run out of money, and there are no more visitors, so they switched from feeding feed to feeding carrots and vegetables every day!!”
Online commentators criticised the zoo, with users like ‘Vegetable’ saying: “The animals in Panzhou Zoo are really abused. They don’t eat well, and the environment is terrible. I don’t want to go there after I went there once.”
User ‘Forced into the arena’ wrote: “The bear is as hungry as a dog.”
And ‘Farmer’s Three Punches’ said: “Return the animals to nature.”
The Panzhou Tourism Industrialisation Development Centre was quick to respond to the claims and inspected the zoo.
It said that the bear had been fed vegetables and steamed cornbread since it was a cub and had grown accustomed to the diet.
Now, being over 10 years old, it has grown old and is eating much less due to its age.
The statement was confirmed by the Panzhou Natural Resources Bureau, which also looked into the incident and promised to continue monitoring the bear in collaboration with other departments.
The bureau claimed that another black bear living at the zoo is in normal and healthy condition, although it is understood it was a recent arrival.
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Story By: Simona Kitanovska, Sub-Editor: Simona Kitanovska, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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