They only look like baby pandas. These little bundles of joy are actually chow chow dogs that have been dyed black-and-white to look like pandas.
Dyeing pets has been a trend in pet pampering for quite some time. At last summer's Pets Show Taipei, there was a fierce dog-dyeing competition. Check out photos.
But dyeing your pets to look like other wild animals is a more recent development.
The trend demonstrates how quickly and dramatically attitudes toward pets — particularly dogs — have changed in many parts of Asia.
In Taiwan, for example, just 10 years ago, dogs were still eaten in public restaurants and raised on farms for that purpose. Traditional Chinese medicine held that so-called "fragrant meat" from dogs could fortify one's health. Now, eating dog is viewed by many as an embarrassing reminder of a poorer time.
Elsewhere, in mainland China, dog meat is still very much on the menu. In fact, it's more expensive than pork or beef.
So, while more people may be eating dog as the country gets richer, newly wealthy Chinese have embraced dog-owning culture with a vengeance.
Dogs are brought into restaurants, fussed over in public, dressed up in ridiculous outfits and dyed to look like ferocious tigers.
Panda or chow chow? Tiger or retriever? You be the judge:
These dogs were put on show after being transferred to Zhenghou from southwest China's Sichuan province
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These chow chow dogs have been styled to look like pandas in Xi’an, Shaanxi province on June 18, 2011.
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And here's another bizarre transformation, courtesy of the Daily Mail: a pet retriever in China has been dyed to look like tiger.
Bangkok, China - They slink through Chinese streets dropping poop like “land mines.” They are a blight on “social peace and harmony.”
Pet dogs, in the eyes of China’s Communist Party, are a modern-day menace. And the Chinese urbanites who’ve grown infatuated with Spot and Rover are acting out a “crude and ludicrous imitation ... of a Western lifestyle.”
So goes a recent op-ed in the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official news outlet.
The op-ed decries a “dog infestation” in China’s cities. Its urgent message to selfish dog owners: scoop those land mines - or else.
And yet the writer concedes that pet ownership is proof of China’s economic ascent. After all, starving peasants can’t afford to pamper Shih Tzus.
The ranks of people who can afford dog chow is rising fast. By 2030, according to the United Nations, China’s middle class will be four times the size of America’s middle class. Many Chinese can now seek out what Western consumers have long enjoyed: cars, flat-screen TVs and, yes, pet poodles. In Beijing, the number of registered dogs hit 1 million in 2012.
The doggie denouncement coincides with a revived effort to stamp out certain Western beliefs and behaviors taking root in 21st-century China. Officials are taking aim at bigger perils to social harmony, including democracy, an obsession with “individual rights” and the “free flow of information on the internet.”
“During Mao’s cultural revolution, dog ownership was condemned as elitist.”
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A Chinese man who supplements his income by walking dogs around the Houhai Lake area of Beijing on December 11, 2012. Dog ownership is popular amongst China?s elderly and the growing middle class but Beijing owners cannot keep dogs taller than 36 centimeters.
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This picture taken on March 18, 2014 shows an unidentified man posing for a photo with two Tibetan mastiffs after they were sold at a "luxury pet" fair in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. One of the Tibetan mastiff puppies (L) was sold in China for almost two million USD, a report said on March 19, in what could be the most expensive dog sale ever.
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An old man and his Pekingese dog in an ancient street of Beijing, China.
Officials in Shanghai have experimented with an even stricter edict: If dog owners can’t convince neighbors to approve of their dogs, the animal is confiscated by the state.
Dogs who aren’t up to code can be yanked out of owners’ arms. That was the fate of one white pooch, confiscated by cops in this cell phone video that went viral in China.
All of these rules on dog ownership, however, are increasingly flouted.
A documentary titled “Oversized Dogs” focuses entirely on Chinese citizens defying dog laws. Its director calls this trend “an important part of Chinese dissent.”
Meanwhile, the Communist Party’s media arm keeps cranking out editorials about dogs.
Just one month ago, the People’s Daily published another piece urging animal rights activists to stop berating fellow Chinese who view dogs as a culinary delicacy.
The op-ed first revives the elitist legacy of pet dogs in China: “Over China’s long history, they have only recently become pets except in the imperial court where Pekingese were kept exclusively for the royals.”
Another group suspiciously fond of canines? That’s right — foreigners. Though Westerners call dogs “man’s best friend,” the People’s Daily states, “Chinese people have only ever kept watchdogs or hunting dogs — along with those to be eaten.”
Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland has discovered that hundreds more pet deaths are now blamed on a popular dog medicine.
Since Strickland first reported data collected by the Food and Drug Administration eight months ago, the number of death complaints is up nearly 40 percent, now coming in at a rate greater than one dog per day.
The FDA cautions there is no solid evidence linking Trifexis to any dog's death. The reports are simply complaints from owners and vets in which the pill is suspected.
"It's just horrendous to watch an animal die such a horrible, painful, excruciating death," said Acworth resident Anita Bergen.
Bergen's case is included in the FDA data.
Her Scottie named Fergus was 10 years old when she tried Trifexis.
"The initial reaction from taking that one pill was horrible," Bergen said.
"One pill?" asked Strickland.
"One Trifexis pill was all he ever had."
Bergen says the dog lost all muscle control, lost his thirst and suffered liver failure. She euthanized him two months after giving him the pill.
"I do feel deceived. I do not feel there was full disclosure," Bergen said.
Trifexis is a once-a-month pill to kill fleas, control parasites and prevent heartworm. TV commercials list side effects like vomiting and lethargy, but not death.
Strickland learned through the Freedom of Information Act that the FDA lists 965 complaints of dog deaths blamed on Trifexis.
That's an increase of 38 percent in the last eight months, and close to the total of 1,000 deaths linked to Chinese-made chicken jerky pet treats.
Drug maker Elanco maintains it can find no link between the pill and any dog fatalities.
"I see that as a cause for investigation, and as they're looking at those causes. I feel confident the FDA will follow through, but from our experience, we haven't seen it," said Cobb County veterinarian Toby Carmichael.
Carmichael says he and his partners have prescribed 75,000 doses of Trifexis with no adverse complications.
"My dogs have been on Trifexis since it came out and haven't had an issue once,” Carmichael said.
Physician Rochelle LePor has given her 7-year-old rescue dog Cooper nearly 40 pills over three years.
"I can only speak of my experience. For me, it’s like a wonder drug," she said.
"The FDA is not going to allow a product on the market that's going to hurt animals," added Carmichael.
Reports to Elanco's customer hotline have had an impact. There are now nearly 1,500 complaints of lost muscle control; a condition called ataxia.
Elanco added ataxia to its list of side effects two years ago.
Elanco also added seizures, the malady that hit a prize bulldog named Foxy, owned by 50-year veteran breeder Nancy Harrison.
The dog developed additional symptoms beyond her veterinarian's control.
"So you were forced to euthanize her?" Strickland asked.
"Yeah, if you saw it, you wouldn't want to live with it either. And never in 52 years had I had one before,” Harrison said.
Harrison stopped using the drug, even though her other dogs handled it without issue.
"It's hard to lose a dog. They're my children," said Harrison.
The mystery of their dogs’ deaths eats at her and Bergen.
"All the tests that are done, they're all inconclusive. No one can ever say this death is absolutely the result of administering this particular medication. But all the owners, all the pet caregivers know," said Bergen.
The FDA says it's continuing to monitor reports, and considers the product label a living document. To date, there are no plans to list death as even a rare but potential side effect.
Among the millions mourning the death of Robin Williams on Monday was Koko, a gorilla who communicates in sign language. Williams met Koko in 2001 at The Gorilla Foundation in Northern California, where the great ape managed to upstage the great comedic actor.
“Years later (on Aug. 11, 2014), Koko overheard Penny (Dr. Penny Patterson, Koko’s mentor and surrogate mother) talking on the phone about Robin, who had just passed away,” The Gorilla Foundation stated on its website. “She became extremely sad.”
“When you remember Robin Williams, remember that he is not only one of the world’s most beloved entertainers, he is also one of the world’s most powerful ambassadors for great ape conservation,” the organization said.
For his part, Williams called his conversations with Koko a “mind-altering experience.”
The encounter with Koko was just one of many efforts Williams made over the years on behalf of wildlife. In 2011, the actor appeared with other celebrities in a TakePart video to call attention to the annual slaughter of dolphins at the cove in Taiji, Japan, where the few survivors are sold to zoos and water parks.
“My friend doesn’t belong in captivity,” Williams says in the video. “The others are brutally killed.”
“Years later (on Aug. 11, 2014), Koko overheard Penny (Dr. Penny Patterson, Koko’s mentor and surrogate mother) talking on the phone about Robin, who had just passed away,” The Gorilla Foundation stated on its website. “She became extremely sad.”
“When you remember Robin Williams, remember that he is not only one of the world’s most beloved entertainers, he is also one of the world’s most powerful ambassadors for great ape conservation,” the organization said.
For his part, Williams called his conversations with Koko a “mind-altering experience.”
The encounter with Koko was just one of many efforts Williams made over the years on behalf of wildlife. In 2011, the actor appeared with other celebrities in a TakePart video to call attention to the annual slaughter of dolphins at the cove in Taiji, Japan, where the few survivors are sold to zoos and water parks.
“My friend doesn’t belong in captivity,” Williams says in the video. “The others are brutally killed.”
In 1995, the comedian narrated and starred in the PBS documentary In the Wild—Dolphins With Robin Williams. He followed the work of marine biologists and swam with Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Caribbean.
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As with Koko, he attempted to communicate with his newfound dolphin friends.
“What’s up, my main mammal?” he asked a spotted dolphin.
Closer to his Marin County, Calif., home, Williams once made an impromptu appearance at a fund-raiser for the local humane society, jumping onstage to riff with another comedian.
“The Marin Humane Society is very sad to hear about the passing of Robin Williams,” the group said on its Facebook page on Monday. “In 2009, we were honored when he gave a surprise performance at our Woofstock benefit concert.”
