China zoo under fire for disguising dog as lion

A Chinese zoo\'s supposed \"African lion\" was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking. The zoo in the People\'s Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species, according to the state-run Beijing Youth Daily. It quoted a customer surnamed Liu who wanted to show her son the different sounds animals made -- but he pointed out that the animal in the cage labelled \"African lion\" was barking. The beast was in fact a Tibetan mastiff -- a large and long-haired breed of dog. \"The zoo is absolutely cheating us,\" the paper quoted Liu, who was charged 15 yuan ($2.45) for the ticket, as saying. \"They are trying to disguise the dogs as lions.\" Three other species housed incorrectly included two coypu rodents in a snake\'s cage, a white fox in a leopard\'s den, and another dog in a wolf pen. The chief of the park\'s animal department, Liu Suya, told the paper that while it does have a lion, it had been taken to a breeding facility and the dog -- which belonged to an employee -- had been temporarily housed in the zoo over safety concerns. Users of China\'s Twitter-like Sina Weibo service mocked the zoo. \"This is not funny at all. It\'s sad for both the zoo and the animals,\" said one. \"They should at least use a husky to pretend to be a wolf,\" said another.