Pandas are allegedly being abused at a Chinese breeding center, according to new video footage that shows keepers throwing pandas to the ground.
Animals rights activists and Chinese social media users condemned the video, criticizing the keepers.
"When we saw the video, we thought the staff members had overreacted, even though they meant no harm to the pandas," Wu Kongju, who is a research assistant at the base, told Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua. "But we hope people can show more understanding toward the panda keepers, because although giant pandas look cute, they are quite strong and can be violent."
But some users on Chinese social media websites didn't believe the explanation.
And Chinese state-run media said that officials spoke to staff members and have "taken measures."
Though the giant panda is seen as a national treasure in China and is closely protected by the government, this is far from the first instance of cruelty that pandas face in captive breeding programs. In recent years, giant panda conservation efforts have turned into a multimillion-dollar industry, with breeding programs giving little thought to successfully returning pandas to the wild. In facilities such as Chengdu, cubs are regularly taken from their mothers right after birth and raised separately until they are ready to be displayed in a nursery or lent to a foreign zoo at a considerable cost. Adult female pandas are continuously drugged and inseminated, with births seen as a numbers game by the programs.There are an estimated 2,060 giant pandas left in the world, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.