(CNN) – A Chinese zoo has admitted that its star attraction, two alleged pandas, are nothing more than painted dogs.
The fluffy Chow Chows, painted to look like the country’s beloved national animal, appeared in a video recorded by a visitor to the zoo, located in the southern province of Guangdong. The video, published this Monday on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has gone viral, being shared more than 1.4 million times and receiving more than 725,000 likes.
In a photo shared by another user on social media, the black and white canines can be seen in an enclosure next to a sign that says “painted dogs.”
“We call ourselves Panda Dogs, pet dogs that look like a panda, dyed and dressed by Chow Chow. “We are kind, intelligent, friendly, pretty and adorable,” the poster says.
The zoo’s director, surnamed Huang, said the dogs are one of its main attractions.
“From our name, you can see that we are the ‘Paradise of Strange Animals and Cute Pets,’” he told state media Sichuan Observation. “These are painted Chow Chow dogs (like pandas), since it is part of our specialties.”
This is not the first time dogs have been painted to look like pandas or other wild animals in China.
In May, a zoo in eastern Jiangsu province sparked outrage when visitors discovered two dogs had been painted black and white to look like pandas. After widespread criticism, the zoo admitted the trick.
A cafe in the southwestern city of Chengdu also came under fire in 2019 for offering a dyeing service for people to make their pets look like pandas. And in 2016, pet stores in Guangdong were caught selling dogs dyed to look like miniature tigers.
