China zoo under fire for disguising dog as lion

[mistercrabby]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5glx2Hn8c-tr6DL6vSSU5GhWY3xvg?docId

BEIJING — A Chinese zoo's supposed "African lion" was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking.
The zoo in the People's Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species, according to the state-run Beijing Youth Daily.
It quoted a customer surnamed Liu who wanted to show her son the different sounds animals made -- but he pointed out that the animal in the cage labelled "African lion" was barking.
The beast was in fact a Tibetan mastiff -- a large and long-haired breed of dog.

When the fraud was uncovered, patrons immediately responded by salivating. :biggrin:

 

[OCGuy]

You aint lyin'!

 

[ElFenix]

probably used the real lion for folk medicine

 

[sdifox]

in China, even the Lion is fake!

 

[JTsyo]

In the end does it matter? They went to the zoo and thought they say a lion but it was a dog, how does it effect anything in their lives? Not that this is not fraud but thinking about the bigger picture the fraud doesn't seem that important.

 

[JulesMaximus]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5glx2Hn8c-tr6DL6vSSU5GhWY3xvg?docId

BEIJING — A Chinese zoo's supposed "African lion" was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking.
The zoo in the People's Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species, according to the state-run Beijing Youth Daily.
It quoted a customer surnamed Liu who wanted to show her son the different sounds animals made -- but he pointed out that the animal in the cage labelled "African lion" was barking.
The beast was in fact a Tibetan mastiff -- a large and long-haired breed of dog.

When the fraud was uncovered, patrons immediately responded by salivating. :biggrin:

Oh fuck, I literally just LOL'd at work after reading that! :biggrin:

 

[unokitty]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5glx2Hn8c-tr6DL6vSSU5GhWY3xvg?docId

BEIJING — A Chinese zoo's supposed "African lion" was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking.
The zoo in the People's Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species, according to the state-run Beijing Youth Daily.
It quoted a customer surnamed Liu who wanted to show her son the different sounds animals made -- but he pointed out that the animal in the cage labelled "African lion" was barking.
The beast was in fact a Tibetan mastiff -- a large and long-haired breed of dog.

Are they sure it was a dog?

If I understand Chinese Mythology, it does include a creature that is part dog and part lion.

When I lived in Okinawa, we called these creatures Shi Shi Dogs. But I guess a more appropriate term would be Shisa.

Shisa is a traditional Ryukyuan decoration, often in pairs, resembling a cross between a lion and a dog, from Okinawan mythology. People place pairs of shisa on their rooftops or flanking the gates to their houses. Shisa are wards, believed to protect from some evils. --Wikipedia

Mastiff? Shisa? Shi Shi? Who knows?

Uno

 

[JulesMaximus]

"This is not funny at all. It's sad for both the zoo and the animals," said one.

No, actually it's really fucking funny!

 

[Josh123]

Surprised it's not on a buffet.

 

[Bacstar]

probably used the real lion for folk medicine

Makes you wonder, what endangered animal is not on the medicine list of the Chinese and Asians, in general?

Read the other day of a big ivory bust where the ivory pieces were covered in chocolate and wrapped as various candy bars. Authorities estimated that these poachers have had to kill 10000 elephants.

Then there's the story about sharks being hunted down for their shark fins for shark fin soup and scientists are starting to worry about their status.

 

[HomerJS]

The real lions were too ugly so they substituted a cute dog.

 

[MontyAC]

At least get a large cat to substitute.

 

[sdifox]

The real lions were too ugly so they substituted a cute dog.

But they forgot to record the roar of the real lion and teach the dog to lip-synch :awe:

 

[dud]

I can't stop laughing ...

 

[cerebusPu]

The Tibetan mastiff is pretty expensive. Probably more so than a lion at 1.5 million for a dog.

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/193...-mastiff-the-most-expensive-dog-in-the-world/

 

[Red Storm]

I think the dog was just doing his best to not end up on a menu.

 

[Ventanni]

I dunno how you can mistake an African Lion for anything but an African Lion. We have them here at Busch Gardens here in Tampa, and male lions are absolutely enormous and majestic looking. They look nothing like this dog!

 

[Zeze]

I think the dog was just doing his best to not end up on a menu.

Hey, HEY!

Get the Asians right. Chinese don't' eat dogs. My people do.

 

[Red Storm]

Hey, HEY!

Get the Asians right. Chinese don't' eat dogs. My people do.

Wikipedia disagrees.

 

[AdamK47]

Oh China, you so funny!

 

[Kaido]

Haha I knew they made knockoffs of everything, but c'mon a lion??

 

[sdifox]

Hey, HEY!

Get the Asians right. Chinese don't' eat dogs. My people do.

Chinese people do too. Cantonese eat anything :biggrin:

 

[Red Storm]

Haha I knew they made knockoffs of everything, but c'mon a lion??

That dog was lion!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Do lions typically wag their tails, pant and bark?

 

[zinfamous]

Hey, HEY!

Get the Asians right. Chinese don't' eat dogs. My people do.

sure they do. They even have dog farms in certain parts of China.

At least...this according to our off-the-boat Chinese post doc in the lab.