Chinese zoos are being scrutinized after they admitted to paint donkeys and whites to look like zebras to increase the footprint of tourists. New York Post. The Jivocity Amusement Park in Shandong has captured the anger of Chinese social media users after realising that the donkey looks rather strange.
One of the photos shows a zoo worker, painted with black and white stripes standing next to a donkey, running across his body. Just as the controversy snowballed, the zoo confirmed that the dye was actually used on animals, but claimed it was not toxic.
“The owner just did it for fun,” one staff member added that the local zoo had previously attracted attention by taking dogs to pandas. This was an attempt to replicate that promotional strategy.
Many people are calling for stricter regulations to prevent such practices in the future.
“It's unfair to animals and visitors,” one user said, but another added:
The third commented: “They did a pretty bad job too.”
Watch: The anger after China Zoo draws butterflies looks like a tiger
Previous instance
This is not the first example of a Chinese zoo attempting to stop bait and switch scams. Last month, the zoo, located in the Sun in Jiangsu Province, urged itself on social media by colouring two dogs black and orange to resemble tigers.
“Our tigers are huge and very intense!” the zoo claimed during a live show on the bytedance-owned app Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok.
After the video went viral, social media users said that despite the creature surrounded by wooden pens on the screen, two chow-cho dogs painted bright orange with black stripes, I pointed out that it wasn't the Tigers.
The zoo later confessed to local media that the dog was dyed as a “witness” before adding that the dog had no health risks associated with movement.
