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Chinese zoo tries to disguise dog as lion in cage

Just because it looks like a lion, you may want to make sure it sounds like a lion before telling people it's a lion.

Media in China are reporting a zoo in that country replaced its actual lion with a dog. To be fair, they didn't just use some random Chihuahua. They used a Tibetan mastiff, which could resemble a lion if the dog has long hair and the person looking at it is really far away and has bad eyesight.

The fraud dog was first noticed at the zoo in the People's Park of Louhe when a mother took her son to the zoo to show him the different sounds animals make. BBC reports, when they were standing in front of the cage marked "African lion" they were shocked to hear the creature bark.

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Given how embarrassing not being able to properly roar was for young Simba, we can't imagine what this fake lion was going through. At least there weren't any real lions to hear his poor roar.

Zoo officials didn't try to cover it up. They quickly revealed the so-called lion was actually a dog.

"The zoo is absolutely trying to cheat us," said the mother to the state-run Beijing Youth Daily. "They are trying to disguise the dogs as lions."

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The chief of the park's animal department told the paper the lion was taken to a breeding facility and they put the dog - which belongs to an employee - in its cage due to safety concerns.

BBC reports a white fox was put in the leopard's den and another dog was passed off as a wolf.

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