Chinese zoo substitutes lion for dog
A zoo in China has substituted lions and wolves for dogs and rats for snakes in what is being seen as a cost-cutting exercise.
A zoo in China has replaced its lions with Tibetan Mastiff dogs. Photo: ED JONES/AFP
By Malcolm Moore, Beijing
7:21PM BST 14 Aug 2013
With the sun shining and kids at home for the school holidays, many families in the eastern Chinese city of Luohe decided to pay a visit to the city's zoo this week.
But those hoping to be thrilled by the zoo's fearsome beasts were left disappointed by a rather tamer set of substitutes.
"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."
Indeed, inside the enclosure marked "African Lion" was a Tibetan mastiff dog. There was another dog in the wolf cage, while some foxes were standing in for the leopards.
Finally, a pair of large rats could be found scuttling around a glass cage meant for snakes. The slithery predators were nowhere to be seen.
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 100,000 yuan (£11,000).
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.
Meanwhile, more wild animals disappeared further to the south this week.
Two crocodiles are currently at large in Jiangsu province after the botched demolition of a breeding farm.
Six out of 16 Nile crocodiles escaped when workers descended, in the middle of the night, to forcibly demolish their farm on the outskirts of Xuzhou city, claiming that the outbuildings had been erected without planning permission.
Four of the beasts, each roughly eight feet long, were recaptured by the manager of the farm from drainage ditches in the neighbourhood. The other two remain on the loose.
"They will attack people if they feel threatened," said the manager of the farm, named only as Mr Fan. "This place is surrounded by cornfields and villages, where people work on the farms and kids play around. The consequences of an attack can be terrible."
Jiangsu Television showed nine crocodiles amid the wreckage of the farm on Tuesday.
"The auxiliary buildings in the crocodile farm were illegal and were removed, in accordance with the law. The crocodile pool was deep, and we didn't believe the crocodiles would run out," an unnamed official from the subdistrict told the television station.
"The demolition was done at night because we were too busy during the day," he added.
Additional reporting by Adam Wu
