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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11618175
Zoo defends ‘panda’ exhibit after criticism for using dogs dyed black and white
On May 1, the zoo drew large crowds of excited animal lovers as it prepared to unveil a new attraction.
When the zoo revealed the animals, visitors were met with the sight of little four-legged creatures, with white faces and black spots around their eyes and ears - not unlike the colorings of a panda.
The only thing is, these creatures weren’t pandas. In fact, they were Chow Chows - a dog you might recognize from real life or social media, since they’re very much the opposite of a wild animal.
The spitz-type dogs originally come from northern China, and were presented at the zoo because the owners said they didn’t have any actual pandas to show visitors.
The owners were accused of trimming and dying the dogs to look like pandas, causing some backlash as locals accused the zoo of animal cruelty.
However, a spokesperson for the zoo hit back at the criticism as they pointed out that ‘people also dye their hair’.
If a wolf didn’t want to be domesticated, particularly with the technology humans had at the time, there was no way it would have happened. Dog domestication is generally believed from genetic estimates to have begun around 20,000 years ago. Not only is this around 15,000 years before humans started working metal, it was likely long before they had the technology to build cages with any kind of reliability. The point is, when the domestication of dogs started, humans most likely had the ability to KILL a wolf, but to subdue one alive with any reliability and force it to its will for domestication? At the very least it’s questionable, particularly given how resource intensive it would’ve been to do that to a powerful, threatening animal that is resisting while you’re a group of subsistence hunter/gatherers.