A Chinese zoo has been going to the dogs.
China’s Taizhou Zoo was caught panda-ing to visitors by painting Chow Chow dogs black and white and passing them off as the bamboo-chomping bears, according to the New York Post.
Zookeepers reportedly trimmed the pooches’ manes and dyed their faces black to look like pandas.
A rep for the zoo defended the scam, telling the outlet, “There are no panda bears at the zoo and we wanted to do this as a result.”
The zoo also denied accusations it was engaging in animal cruelty, insisting, “People also dye their hair.” The spokesperson rationalized, “Natural dye can be used on dogs if they have long fur.”
Honestly, we bear-ly noticed the difference.