paint yourself a panda

i think i got a glimpse somewhere last week about some fake pandas, but today the dutch national news has it online.

if you cannot get some pandas from the government, they seem to be all owned by the state of china, you can always paint yourself some chowchows.

they even have a picture with it, let say they better redo their courses again.

https://cdn.nos.nl/image/2024/09/20/1138160/1024x576a.jpg

the article is of course in dutch;
https://nos.nl/artikel/2537901-dierentuin-in-china-geeft-toe-panda-s-zijn-geverfde-honden

with a bit translation by deepl;

China zoo admits: ‘pandas’ are painted dogs

A Chinese zoo has admitted that the ‘pandas’ they keep are actually painted dogs. Videos of the barking animals already went viral on Chinese social media. Now the director of the Shanwei Zoo has confessed that they are ‘panda dogs’.

‘They are indeed not real pandas, but chowchow dogs that we have painted,’ the director said. Earlier, the zoo reportedly asked for giant pandas, but they were not allocated.

The dogs will not leave the panda enclosure. Meanwhile, it does have a sign next to it explaining that they are ‘dog pandas’. The zoo says it never claimed they were real pandas, and that painting animals is their speciality.