Pizza, the world's "saddest polar bear," is still languishing in an aquarium in a shopping mall in China, and now four animal welfare organizations have issued an open letter asking that the poor creature be moved.
The bear lives in a small glass-enclosed aquarium in the Grandview Mall in Guangzhou, in the China province of Guangdong, reminded The New York Times on Tuesday, recalling that animal activists had complained Pizza is distressed by the living conditions.
"The appallingly inadequate way that this polar bear is being kept at the Grandview is a shameful stain on China that must be swiftly corrected," said a Capital Animal Welfare Association statement on the Humane Society International's website.
"A shopping center is no place to be keeping any wild animal. Pizza can never be released to the wild, but at the very least mall operators should let him live out the rest of his days in a facility where he can breathe fresh air and see the sunlight. If it has been decided that he will not leave China, then let's find him the best new home inside China, but we cannot stand idly by and let this once magnificent bear languish in this depressing state."
Activists said last month that the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in England had agreed to take Pizza on the condition that the mall owners don't replace him with another polar bear, said Agence France-Presse.
The mall's owners told AFP that no one contacted them moving Pizza, but added there was "no need for foreign organizations to get involved."
"We are a legally compliant aquarium, run according to Chinese standards and protecting animal rights. In the future we will strengthen the protection of animal rights and welfare," a mall spokesman told AFP.
Hongmei Yu, founder and president of Vshine Animal Protection Association, said animal rights groups had collected a million petition signatures from around the world in support of Pizza and other zoo animals in China.
"There is a worrying trend in China of wild animal exhibits in shopping centers, with another one reportedly being considered right now in Shijiazhuang, Hebei," said Hongmei. "It shows a complete lack of regard for their welfare.
"If the mall thinks foreign groups are not needed, let them meet with us Chinese groups instead, because we too care passionately about these animals and want to give them a better life. There are no more excuses left for not taking action."
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