Watch: China zoo paints dogs to look like pandas

Visitors at a the Taizhou Zoo in the Jiangsu province of China were left feeling angry and deceived after it was revealed that the pandas on display were actually just Chow Chow dogs painted black ad white. Guests were outraged, accusing the zoo of not only deceiving the customers, but also of cruelty to the animals.

A spokesperson from the zoo defended the decision to portray the dogs as bears, saying that since they could not obtain actual giant pandas, this was their solution and that “people dye their hair”, so using safe dyes on animal fur should be perfectly acceptable.

Videos uploaded online show the dogs with black legs and ears and black rings around their eyes like pandas, but their characteristics were unmistakably dog-like. From the curly tail to the way they ran, it was clear the animals were not as they were being portrayed.

The zoo did put up signs inside which read that the “panda dogs” were not actually a panda species. “They are rather pet dogs that have been groomed to look like pandas or that were born with coat patterns similar to those of pandas,” the sign reads. “Such canines will often have a white undercoat with black markings around the eye rims and ears, mimicking the facial features of a giant panda.”

The problem is, those signs were inside the zoo, meaning customers could not see them until after they’d purchased tickets. Images of the tickets themselves were posted to the Chinese social media site Weibo, and showed the dogs advertised as a new species.

This brings back memories of when the Hangzhou Zoo in China was accused of having a human in a bear costume rather than an actual bear on display in their zoo.