Talk about cowardly. The Luohe zoo in the Chinese province of Henan is in trouble after it reportedly tried to pass off a Tibetan mastiff dog as a lion. The dog, pictured, was placed in a cage labeled “African lion,” but the zoo’s visitors figured out something was amiss when they heard the animal, which resembles an oversized Chow, bark.
And that wasn’t the only animal ruse happening at the Luohe zoo.
Visitors also reported that the snake cage contained no snakes, and two rats instead. And a leopard cage contained two “fox-like” characters. Sneaky!
For its part, the zoo said that it actually does have a lion, but that it was at a separate breeding facility. How a poofy-haired mastiff made its way into the cage (ahem, cough, cough) in its place, was unclear. Either way, visitors are pissed.
“They should at least use a husky to pretend to be a wolf,” said one zoo visitor on China’s version of Twitter. Fair enough. [Business Insider]
Original by Julie Gerstein
