Chinese zoo visitors expose fake zebras in viral photos

It happened in Zibo, eastern China's Shandong province. The terrible images made the rounds on social media and the good thing is that the park's managers defended their decision by claiming that it was a "marketing" strategy

In a surprising attempt to lure tourists, a zoo has once again turned to animal disguise. It is not the first time this has occurred. Previously, the case of dyed dogs resembling pandas was in the news, and so was a previous controversy regarding puppies painted like tiger cubs.

This time, in China, donkeys were striped-painted to look like zebras. This has been done before—it once made headlines when a similar case was discovered in Cairo.

The scam soon went viral when tourists, rather than being fooled, caught on to the scam and started posting photos and videos of the fake zebras.

“The owner did it just for fun”

The New York Post wrote that the employees at the amusement park defended the donkey’s coloring, claiming that the dye was harmless and that it was purely a marketing ploy.

“The owner did it for fun,” one of the employees claimed. In fact, a sign at the site even clarified that the animal was a donkey, not a zebra.

Again, animals are not only enclosed within the parameters of a zoo’s bars but also deprived of their identity and turned into spectacle.