(CN) Anger over panda's circus act

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MONDAY OCTOBER 22 2001 The Times

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001364571,00.html

 

BY PHILIP PANK

 

A PANDA has been entertaining circus audiences in China by lifting

dumbbells, driving a go-kart and playing on a children's slide.

 

Yingying, a giant panda who is 17 and was born at a zoo in the

southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, is said by circus organisers to be

the only panda able to dunk a basketball.

 

Conservationists are dismayed by the animal's antics at the Chinese

Acrobats Arts Festival in Beijing. A spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund,

which uses the giant panda as its logo, said yesterday: " The WWF believes

that the right place for pandas is in the wild. They are an endangered

species.

 

" Using an endangered species in a circus, we would feel, would not be

appropriate. When they are in captivity, the WWF believes that it should be

for scientific benefit and conservation. "

 

The conservation organisation issued a report earlier this year

claiming that with just 1,000 pandas left in the wild, the species remained

" on the brink of extinction " .

 

Stuart Chapman, head of the WWF's species programme, said that the

Chinese Government was failing to address the plight of the giant panda.

" Conservation is hampered by an overwhelming emphasis on economic

development and deficiencies in the Government's approach, " he said. " The

reality is that more pandas are dying than are being born. "

 

 

Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.