The two Asian black bears mistakenly raised as dogs by a Yunnan native. (Photo : https://www.youtube.com)
Getting offered to buy an adorable-looking puppy? Make sure it barks first.
Perhaps that was the last thing on the mind of Wang Kaiyu when he bought two “puppies” from a Vietnamese guy who sold them back in 2013.
Xinhua News Agency said that the Vietnamese offered Wang the supposed puppies and said they would serve as “good watchdogs.” Wang is a resident of Maguan County in Yunnan Province and was in his banana farm when the incident happened.
He purchased them and like any typical pet-loving owner, Wang attended to their basic needs, from feeding to grooming to bathing to everything.
As the years went by, surprising revelations unfolded.
Wang observed that though the two animals behaved well, they were not exhibiting traits normally attributed to dogs. For one, he caught the two killing his chickens and eating them.
Nevertheless, such incidents didn’t raise enough doubt for Wang to rule out that the “puppies” he purchased two years ago were something else until one day when he went to a local exhibition.
Wang visited a wildlife protection exhibition by the public security bureau. Checking out a leaflet, he got the surprise of his life upon learning that his two “watchdogs” were actually bears.
Wang contacted and sought the help of the authorities. The bears were sent to the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center of Yunnan.
The bears, one male and one female, turned out to be Asian black bears aka white-chested bear or moon bear. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) gave Asian black bears a classification of “Vulnerable (VU),” which makes them threatened species.
In China, the government designated Asian black bears as protected and endangered species, Category 2 or Class II.
That bearable truth finally dawned on Wang after two years, leaving him with some “beary” good memories.
