Chinese safari park 'sincerely sorry' for failing to tell public leopards were on loose
Amy Sood and Nicole Yang and Isabel Wang
They say a leopard can't change its spots. Unfortunately for a safari park in eastern China they can, however, escape.
© Provided by NBC News
Locals were demanding answers Monday after a safari park in eastern China failed to inform authorities and residents for weeks that three of its leopards had gotten out of their enclosure.
One of the leopards was still on the loose, Hangzhou Safari Park in the city of Fuyang said. According to local media, a search team is on the leopard's trail after paw prints believed to be left by the feline were found on Sunday.
The vice mayor of Hangzhou City said the police found that the leopards had escaped on April 19, several weeks before the first reported sighting. The safari park also admitted to the police that they did not report the incident over worries it would impact the flow of tourists coming into the zoo during China’s May Day public holidays in the first week of March.
Locals were demanding answers Monday after a safari park in eastern China failed to inform authorities and residents for weeks that three of its leopards had gotten out of their enclosure.
One of the leopards was still on the loose, Hangzhou Safari Park in the city of Fuyang said. According to local media, a search team is on the leopard's trail after paw prints believed to be left by the feline were found on Sunday.
The vice mayor of Hangzhou City said the police found that the leopards had escaped on April 19, several weeks before the first reported sighting. The safari park also admitted to the police that they did not report the incident over worries it would impact the flow of tourists coming into the zoo during China’s May Day public holidays in the first week of March.
© AFP - Getty Images Image: Searcher hunt for the escaped leopards on Sunday.
Local police said that five people in charge of the park, including its general manager, had been detained, and that the police had launched an investigation into the incident.
Residents of nearby neighborhoods said they had spotted the leopards in different locations as early as May 2, according to Chinese state-backed newspaper Global Times, causing fear and confusion.
After the leopards were spotted roaming residential areas and tea plantations near the park on Saturday, residents contacted authorities to report the sightings, according to a statement from the Fuyang District government.
Search teams, using drones and hunting dogs, were dispatched to look for the animals. Two of them have been found and captured, with park officials saying they are in good health.
On Saturday morning, the safari park merely announced that they would be suspending operations citing safety issues, in a now-deleted post on their official WeChat platform. They made no mention of the escaped leopards.
However, after a surveillance video showing a leopard in the high-end residential Jinyuan Villa area went viral online Friday, the park was forced to finally inform the public of the escaped leopards. They released an apology on Saturday evening, saying they were “sincerely sorry” for not alerting the public sooner, insisting that the leopards were only juveniles and that they were worried the announcement would cause panic.
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The park has also come under fire after Chinese state-backed broadcaster CCTV reported seeing the leopards injured after they had been captured by authorities. Local authorities responded saying the leopards were healthy, but Chinese social media users expressed their disdain online.
On China’s Twitter-like Weibo, one user said: “The zoo should be heavily fined. This incident imposed great threat to the safety of people’s lives and property.”
Other users also expressed concern towards the treatment of animals at the zoo , saying: “The behavior of the zoo should be thoroughly investigated. Don’t just investigate why the animals could escape, but also whether the animals are being properly managed and treated."
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