Russian Couple Scam Tourists With Dog Coloured To Look Like Panda Cub

It's not every day that someone comes up to you on the street and offers you the chance to get your very own picture with a panda cub. But then again, if something seems too good to be true, then usually it is.

That's what tourists in the Russian town of Monastir saw when a street trader was offering a chance to hold the 'cub' up for a small fee. From a distance, you wouldn't be blamed for thinking it was an adorable panda.

But up close, it's quite clear that it's a dog.

That didn't stop some tourists from calling the police out of fear the trader had an endangered animal in their clutches. When they arrived, they discovered the 'cub' was in fact a Chow Chow dog who had been dyed with panda markings.

Credit: CEN

As a result, police have started investigating the man, following reports he also had a lion cub and a kite bird that he was using for commercial purposes.

While you might think the trader invented this slimy trick, it's nothing new.

Pet shop owner Hsin Ch'en has made a small fortune by raising Chow puppies and grooming them to look like pandas. There's a huge market for the pups in Chengdu city by the Chinese middle-class.

In 2015, he told the Daily Mail: "Ten years ago the natural instinct of a Chinese person was to eat a dog.

"Now we are like westerners and want one as a companion. The cute breeds like French bulldogs and Labradors were the favourites, but now it is the panda dog."

Another company in Singapore allows people to have a 'photoshoot experience' with a bunch of the dogs. With 14,000 followers on Instagram alone, the social media account shows dozens of the dogs all expertly dyed to look like pandas.

But as the account grew in popularity, so too did cries for the practice to stop. A petition was launched online, which drew more than 3,600 signatures.

Mitchell Fang started the appeal, saying: "There is no way to ensure the safety of the dogs from prolonged and extensive use of animal dye. No amount of 'non-toxicity' is going to prevent the risk of damage to the eyes from the chemicals present in the fur dye, no matter how 'organic' they may be.

"We hope Ms Meng Jiang soon recognises the serious health risks she is putting her dogs through, and stops her hazardous practice as soon as possible."

But that petition was uploaded more than a year ago and the Instagram account continues to this day.

Featured Image Credit: CEN

Topics: Russia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie