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Stopping Shanghai's animal Olympics

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn on Monday, October 9, 2006 at 10:37 AM

Brown Bear in a sailor suit with its muzzle wired shut

The website Animals Asia has started a campaign encouraging readers to write letters to the beleagured Shanghai government and complain about the 'Animal Olympics' recently held in Shanghai. Excerpt:

As soon as Animals Asia received word of the disgusting Animal Olympics held in the Shanghai Wild Animal Park, AAF Executive Director, Annie Mather, immediately flew to Shanghai to investigate and document the appalling treatment.
The park is one of many such parks throughout China, which invent unusual and invariably cruel ways to attract more visitors. Normally empty during the week, they take the opportunity to increase revenue at weekends and public holidays, such as China's "Golden Week" holiday in early October. Shows like the "Animal Olympics" are an added attraction and tour buses filled with visitors looking for thrills pour in from provinces across China...

...With no legislation to protect wild or domestic animals in China, parks such as these continue to exploit animals for financial gain. Until there are laws there is little action that can be taken.

AAF is writing to the Mayor of Shanghai calling for the immediate cessation of these performances and the end of this yearly event once and for all.

Links and Sources

Animals Asia: Shanghai Animal Olympics

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There are currently 6 Comments for Stopping Shanghai's animal Olympics.

Comments on Stopping Shanghai's animal Olympics

Thank goodness someone is doing something. I first heard about the animal Olympics after watching a report on CCTV 9. I thought that CCTV 9's main goal was to promote China overseas. Obviously the people who run the channel have no idea about foreign attitudes to dressing up bears and forcing them to ride bikes into walls. I hope Annie Mather can take a look at Beijing Zoo while she's in China and try to save the dignity of that poor polar bear.

Posted by: Xiao Zhu | October 9, 2006 11:20 AM

from above post: "Obviously the people who run the channel have no idea about foreign attitudes..."

Never a truer word spoken. It is unbelievable how far wide of the mark the CCTV9 producers get in this aspect.

Posted by: mike | October 9, 2006 5:02 PM

Shenzhen Safari Park also features these animal cruelty abominations...a "wedding ceremony" of "naive, funny" bears, and an elephant show which got its revenge this summer when a female tourist was badly injured and paralyzed in a charming gimmick where an audience member rides a baby elephant underneath the mother elephant.
''The park said it immediately stopped the elephant show, which had been popular among visitors for 13 years,'' according to the Shenzhen Daily.
There's also a doped up, chained, declawed and defanged tiger that visitors can pose with for 20 yuan a picture....

Posted by: Justin | October 9, 2006 6:22 PM

And the tiger's keeper will probably happily pull the animal's chain to induce a couple of roars - it makes for a more interesting photograph after all.

Posted by: Xiao Zhu | October 10, 2006 10:27 AM

If the Chinese Government doesn't care about humane treatment of animals maybe they could at least realize that this sort of cruelty gives their nation a bad image worldwide. It's disgusting.

Posted by: Jay | October 12, 2006 9:37 PM

SO WHAT?PLEASE Never forget that it's the WESTERNER who create the word "CIRCUS".This so-called "cruel human treatments of animal " are all inventions of your ancestors.Why not destroy all the circuses in Europe and the U.S.A first before you guys start complaining about ours?

Posted by: charliez | October 19, 2006 2:56 PM

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