One Chinese zoo is finding out the hard way that people can easily tell the difference between a lion and a dog, especially when the dog starts barking. A zoo in the Henan province is being criticized by customers for replacing its African cat with a Tibetan mastiff and giving no notice.
According to the BBC, a Louhe city zoo official said that the lion was away at a breeding center, so they put in an employee’s Tibetan mastiff in the cage. The dog is known for being very hairy and can look like a lion, but it can’t sound like one. So when the animal in the “African lion” cage began barking, customers began complaining.
The Beijing Youth Daily reported that a mother heard the barking and told the paper “The zoo is absolutely trying to cheat us. They are trying to disguise dogs as lions,” notes the BBC.
The South China Morning Post reports that an Oriental Daily reporter was actually told that the wolves were in the area, which explained the barking. “But the wolf is somewhere else in the pen and the dog is a pet. The African lions will be back. They went to another zoo to breed,” the official added.
Yu Hua, head of the People's Park, told SCMP that private contractors are still running the zoo, since their contract hasn’t expired yet. Once it does, the state will take it over, since contracts to private companies to handle zoos have stopped being issued. Yu added that the signs will be “promptly” fixed.