A zoo faced scrutiny after pulling a very eyebrow-raising act.
When visitors of the Xiangwushan Zoo in Xianning, China, decided to take a look at the wolf enclosure, they were in for a surprise, one not many liked, when instead of a wolf, there was a Rottweiler in the cage.
From Wolf to Rottweiler
The zoo claimed that the wolf naturally passed away due to old age.
Mr. Xu, the man who filmed the dog, told Beijing News that the wolf "died of old age," according to the zoo.
According to the Global Times, the puppy, who happens to be a Rottweiler, was only in the cage for a short time and serves as the zoo's watchdog.
He did, however, imply that the zoo was financially failing, claiming that it "didn't have enough guests to keep the zoo up and running smoothly," according to the Shine.cn news website.
The local forestry bureau has now ordered the park to delete the sign leading to the enclosure, which costs 15 yuan ($2.30; £1.70) and still houses lions and tigers.
Online Response
The event has caused a great deal of debate on the internet. Many users on the famous Sina Weibo microblog say it made them laugh, while others say it made them "shocked" and "a little sad."
"At the very least, get a husky," one Weibo user suggests, adding that the breed is more wolf-like. More than 6,000 people liked their message.
Many users said they were relieved just to learn that the dog was not the wolf's dinner.
Some are talking about their own experiences as kids visiting "poorly run" zoos, saying that reality never quite meets up to expectations.
There have been a number of well-publicized instances of zoos providing poor substitutes for wild animals.
A Sign of a Bigger Problem
In 2019, similar video footage showed a domestic dog in a wolf enclosure at the Jiufengshan Forest Park in the nearby city of Wuhan.
In 2017, a zoo in southern Guangxi promised penguins, but they were greeted by inflatable penguins when tourists visited.
A Tibetan mastiff was misidentified as an African cat at a zoo in Henan in 2013.
Donkeys have also been decorated to look like zebras in a number of situations around the world.
In 2017, a zoo in southern Guangxi promised penguins, but they were greeted by inflatable penguins when tourists visited.
In January, a popular zoo in Nanjing, China's eastern capital, requested donations after announcing that it could not pay its employees' wages due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year, the local economy of Xianning suffered greatly as Hubei province bore the brunt of China's Covid-19 epidemic. The city was one of those in Hubei that went into tight lockdown between January and March 2020 and is not far from Wuhan, the original Covid-19 epicenter.
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Chinese Animal Rights
Over the years, animal rights groups have consistently criticized China's zoos. The South China Morning Post reported in 2017 that reports of bad conditions and animal mistreatment at Chinese zoos have persisted.
In China, animal protection laws are restricted. Still, they have been increasingly strengthened over the last year due to Covid-19, which has resulted in crackdowns on practices such as hunting, selling, or consuming wild animals that could spread disease.
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