Imagine walking down the streets in broad daylight and spotting a tiger! Something similar happened in China recently, however, there was a twist in the tale. After a video of a man taking his ‘tiger’ out for a walk became viral on Chinese social media, it was later revealed that it was actually a dog painted orange and black by its owner.
According to Ladbible, the ‘tiger’ was a Caucasian shepherd dog. The golden furred dog had been dyed with black colour for a tiger’s strips and orange for the body. Additionally, a fake, long tail was added to the animal for the full effect.
The video was captured by a pedestrian walking down a street in Zhangye, Gansu Province of China. He was shocked to see this man casually walking with a ‘tiger’ and recorded the bizarre sight. People are now wondering the man used any toxic paint to achieve this effect.
According to DailyMail, this is not the first incident of mistaking a pet for a wild animal in China. Earlier this year, a woman was walking her pet ‘panda’ in south-western China's Sichuan Province. Local media later revealed that it was actually a Chow Chow breed dog who had been painted with black and white dye to create the ‘panda effect’ by her owner. In another similar incident, a pet café owner in a Chengdu shopping mall dyed six of his Chow Chow dogs to resemble pandas.
Evidently, dyeing your pets to resemble exotic animals has become a trend in China for quite some time. however, some reports suggest if proper, high quality dye is not used, and some cheap, toxic dye is used to paint the pets, they can die within a week by accidentally licking their fur. Ink poisoning can cause chronic illness resulting in death. The symptoms include lethargy, inability to move, runny nose, loss of appetite, all of this before the animal succumbs to a painful death. Many animal right groups in both China and abroad have objected to trend. However, their concerns don’t seem to matter to some pet owners in the country.
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