Photo: Thierry Falise/LightRocket (Getty)
That should go without saying, shouldn’t it? This is getting ridiculous, but hey, it’s legitimate news.
Starting out innocently enough, Su Yun bought a pet Tibetan mastiff for her family while on vacay two years ago. She brought it home to Kunming, China and they’ve lived happily ever after since.
That’s where the story would end if the pup didn’t turn out to be an endangered Asiatic Black Bear. The family was tipped off not only by the “dog’s” growing appetite — “a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles every day,” according to what Su told the Chinese Media — but by the fact that it now weighed 250 pounds. Oh, the whole walking on its hind legs trick was a dead giveaway, too.
“The more he grew, the more like a bear he looked, Su told reporters. “I am a little scared of bears.”
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Hence, once the obvious was finally fully realized, the proper authorities were called to have the beloved family pet taken to a proper facility. After all, it’s illegal to own a Asiatic Black bear due to both its status as endangered and black market value. The bear currently resides at the Yunnan Wildlife Rescue Centre.
On that note, we’d like test your bear-identification skills. The following three photos are either Asiatic Black Bear cubs or the burliest mastiff’s we could find photos of. Let’s get quizzical.
If you thought any of those were bears, please get your eyes examined. And for god’s sake, don’t purchase a pet until you do.
