Post by Ace on Aug 18, 2013 10:10:38 GMT -5
I read this in my local paper and just had to share. Thankfully, no need to scan it's international news.
NPR: Zoo In China Swaps Dog For Lion, Hopes No One Notices
Close enough? A Tibetan mastiff, like this one, was placed in the
African lion exhibit at a zoo in China's central Henan province.
August 15, 2013
Visitors to a zoo in China got a rude surprise when the lion started barking.
Turns out it was no lion, but just a Tibetan mastiff, a large, hairy breed of dog — which, for what it's worth, more closely resembles the king of the jungle than does perhaps any other domestic canine.
Apparently, officials in Louhe city zoo in central Henan province when they decided to make the switch and send the enclosure's regular resident, an African lion, away to a breeding center.
"One family surnamed Liu took their six-year-old son to the zoo in People's Park," reported the local Dahe Daily newspaper.
"On the way, Mrs. Liu was teaching her son all the sounds that the different animals make. But when they arrived, her son said the lion was barking like a dog."
Mrs. Liu told the Beijing Youth Daily: "The zoo is absolutely trying to cheat us. They are trying to disguise dogs as lions."
And, the dog-for-cat swap wasn't the only attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of zoo patrons: There was also a domestic dog housed in the wolf pen, and a white fox was found pacing the leopard exhibit.
Newspaper reports:
"There was no official explanation for the change of exhibits, but one zookeeper said the lion had been sent away for breeding.
Yu Hua, a spokesman for the People's Park said that the zoo had been run by a private businessman for several years, at an annual rent of [$17,000].
Many Chinese zoos have struggled to make money in recent years, after a government ruling that animal shows should cease and that they should operate on a non-profit basis."
==================================
And according to this article this is far from unique:
Dog poses as lion in China zoo; blame a ‘fake’ economy?
August 16, 2013, 6:51 AM
‘Some of my best friends are lions.’
Forget the data. A dog posing as a lion could be the canary in the coal mine for the truth about China’s economy.
“We’re doing our best in tough economic times. If anyone is unhappy with our displays, we will give back their money.”
That was a spokesman for a zoo in Henan province, ranked third in China by population, trying desperately to explain away a dog-to-lion swap-out this week that has gone viral. The game was up for the zoo, which claims it removed the lion temporarily for breeding purposes, when visitors noticed something not right in the cage of the mighty beast. What they were looking at was really a Tibetan mastiff dog.
“I had my young son with me so I tried to play along and told him it was a special kind of lion. But then the dog barked and he knew straight away what it was and that I’d lied to him,” said the furious mother, according to one report.
The zoo was temporarily shut down on Friday for “rectification, along with a public apology.
In fairness, the Tibetan mastiff does have a rather fluffy mane. But the zoo also appears to have some other animal-identification problems. Media reports say it’s used foxes to impersonate leopards and other dogs to impersonate a wolf.
This isn’t even the first animal-impersonation offense for China. Back in 2010, dogs were dyed to look like tigers and pandas were used to advertise a pet park. And Quartz, lining up a few Chinese frauds worse than a dog-lion, also noted some cuddly shanzhai dogs have been dyed and made to look like pandas in the past.
But the gee-let’s-pretend theme in China seems to be without end. Earlier this week a Chinese museum with 40,000 fake exhibits was forced to close. A man was forced recently to take a fake mountain villa off of a Chinese tower.
There are lots of questions currently around the country known for having one of the biggest fake markets in the world — clothing, dvds, luxury goods, you name it. (Read this blogger’s account). And plenty of economists worry about economic data that maybe isn’t so real when you scratch the surface –a recent revelation by a Peking professor claims the country added $1 trillion to its economy by cooking the numbers.
So using dogs to impersonate lions at zoos may be just one more sign of what passes for reality in China. All about appearances.
– Barbara Kollmeyer
NPR: Zoo In China Swaps Dog For Lion, Hopes No One Notices
Close enough? A Tibetan mastiff, like this one, was placed in the
African lion exhibit at a zoo in China's central Henan province.
August 15, 2013
Visitors to a zoo in China got a rude surprise when the lion started barking.
Turns out it was no lion, but just a Tibetan mastiff, a large, hairy breed of dog — which, for what it's worth, more closely resembles the king of the jungle than does perhaps any other domestic canine.
Apparently, officials in Louhe city zoo in central Henan province when they decided to make the switch and send the enclosure's regular resident, an African lion, away to a breeding center.
"One family surnamed Liu took their six-year-old son to the zoo in People's Park," reported the local Dahe Daily newspaper.
"On the way, Mrs. Liu was teaching her son all the sounds that the different animals make. But when they arrived, her son said the lion was barking like a dog."
Mrs. Liu told the Beijing Youth Daily: "The zoo is absolutely trying to cheat us. They are trying to disguise dogs as lions."
And, the dog-for-cat swap wasn't the only attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of zoo patrons: There was also a domestic dog housed in the wolf pen, and a white fox was found pacing the leopard exhibit.
Newspaper reports:
"There was no official explanation for the change of exhibits, but one zookeeper said the lion had been sent away for breeding.
Yu Hua, a spokesman for the People's Park said that the zoo had been run by a private businessman for several years, at an annual rent of [$17,000].
Many Chinese zoos have struggled to make money in recent years, after a government ruling that animal shows should cease and that they should operate on a non-profit basis."
==================================
And according to this article this is far from unique:
Dog poses as lion in China zoo; blame a ‘fake’ economy?
August 16, 2013, 6:51 AM
‘Some of my best friends are lions.’
Forget the data. A dog posing as a lion could be the canary in the coal mine for the truth about China’s economy.
“We’re doing our best in tough economic times. If anyone is unhappy with our displays, we will give back their money.”
That was a spokesman for a zoo in Henan province, ranked third in China by population, trying desperately to explain away a dog-to-lion swap-out this week that has gone viral. The game was up for the zoo, which claims it removed the lion temporarily for breeding purposes, when visitors noticed something not right in the cage of the mighty beast. What they were looking at was really a Tibetan mastiff dog.
“I had my young son with me so I tried to play along and told him it was a special kind of lion. But then the dog barked and he knew straight away what it was and that I’d lied to him,” said the furious mother, according to one report.
The zoo was temporarily shut down on Friday for “rectification, along with a public apology.
In fairness, the Tibetan mastiff does have a rather fluffy mane. But the zoo also appears to have some other animal-identification problems. Media reports say it’s used foxes to impersonate leopards and other dogs to impersonate a wolf.
This isn’t even the first animal-impersonation offense for China. Back in 2010, dogs were dyed to look like tigers and pandas were used to advertise a pet park. And Quartz, lining up a few Chinese frauds worse than a dog-lion, also noted some cuddly shanzhai dogs have been dyed and made to look like pandas in the past.
But the gee-let’s-pretend theme in China seems to be without end. Earlier this week a Chinese museum with 40,000 fake exhibits was forced to close. A man was forced recently to take a fake mountain villa off of a Chinese tower.
There are lots of questions currently around the country known for having one of the biggest fake markets in the world — clothing, dvds, luxury goods, you name it. (Read this blogger’s account). And plenty of economists worry about economic data that maybe isn’t so real when you scratch the surface –a recent revelation by a Peking professor claims the country added $1 trillion to its economy by cooking the numbers.
So using dogs to impersonate lions at zoos may be just one more sign of what passes for reality in China. All about appearances.
– Barbara Kollmeyer
Of course vioelnce is just fine. I think China is the same way as regards sex and nudity but more so. Heck, they used to (maybe still do) take out hand holding scenes in movies as too risque.
