A Chinese zoo exhibit is raising controversy online after a video showed a pair of dogs with their fur colored to look like pandas.
A video posted to Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, went viral this week after showing the two fluffy chow chow dogs with their fur artificially colored to resemble pandas at the Shanwei Zoo in southern Guangdong province.
It does not appear the zoo was intending to mislead visitors, however, as a photo shared by CNN shows a sign identifying the animals as “panda dogs.”
“We are called Panda Dogs, a pet dog that looks like a panda, dyed and dressed up by chow chow. We are gentle, smart, friendly, cute and adorable,” the sign reads.
The Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu Province courted a similar controversy earlier this year when the animals in its panda exhibit were revealed as chow chows with their fur dyed.
A zoo spokesman explained the zoo put the dogs on display because it does not have any resident pandas, but he denied the fur dying process was in any way dangerous or harmful to the canines.
