Family Realizes After 2 Years Pet 'Dog' Is Actually Bear When It Starts Walking on Hind Legs
Dogs are common pets. There are so many different kinds, and the weight range and appearance can differ dramatically from breed to breed.
Sometimes, people mistake other creatures for dogs. This has happened with coyotes, foxes and other dog-like creatures, and it’s easy to see why. The babies of those critters look very puppy-like, and someone seeing a pup on its own is likely to scoop it up and care for it without realizing its true nature.
This cute puppy was brought to the PD after a concerned resident found it alone on the side of a busy road. Actually, the puppy turned out to be a coyote! He was quite the attraction at the PD before he was brought to our friends at Willowbrook Wildlife. pic.twitter.com/Kx9DtsS4sd
— Bartlett IL PD (@bartlettpd) May 10, 2018
That’s something like what a family from China claims to have experienced.
Su Yun bought a “puppy” while on vacation back in 2016.
The family says they thought they’d acquired a Tibetan Mastiff puppy, which would have had some of the same colors and the roly-poly pudginess that many baby animals would have … including baby black bears.
But they were puzzled by their new pup’s eating habits. He was eating tons of noodles and fruit every day, and he grew at an alarming rate.
“At the time, it was said that it was only a small Tibetan mastiff,” reads a translation of Su’s explanation to China News. “After taking it home, it has been used as a Tibetan mastiff.”
“Later, the bigger the bigger the more, the more like a black bear. Although I was a little afraid of the black bear, I have been raised for two years and have feelings.”
Their dog never barked, it kept getting bigger, and it started walking on its back legs. They soon came forward to surrender the bear to a sanctuary so that it would get the proper care it needed.
Yunnan Wildlife Rescue Center took in the creature, which was healthy and weighed a respectable 440 pounds. Though the bear had been living with the family for two years, authorities still tranquilized it to move it.
There are some things that don’t add up in this story, which has been covered by many sources including National Geographic. How blind or misinformed do you have to be to really mistake a bear and a dog — even when they’re young?
Over the two years the family had the bear, something must have flagged as unusual. What dog eats baskets of fruit, buckets of noodles, and rapidly grows over several hundred pounds?
It’s possible, surely, to make the mistake — but not probable. There are way too many “tells” that should’ve given the bear away to even the most blissfully unaware family.
Some are suggesting an alternative explanation that makes much more sense. The bear turned out to be an Asiatic black bear, which is an endangered species. They aren’t exactly legal to own.
When it was smaller, the bear might have been easier to handle, but once it got large enough to become a threat, the family may have realized they were in over their heads and tapped out, alerting the Rescue Center and telling them a tale of mistaken identity.
Either way, Su explained that the family is frightened of bears and could no longer take care of the dog/bear. The family will probably receive a smaller-than-usual fine because of their alleged confusion, and hopefully the bear (who never appears to have caused any real trouble) will be taken care of and placed into a safer habitat.
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