OVERWEIGHT LEOPARD COMPARED TO DISNEY CHARACTER ‘TOO OLD TO DIET’
An overweight leopard that has been compared to a Disney Zootopia character has been forced to stop its weight-loss plan due to old age.
The 16-year-old big cat, fondly called “Officer Clawhauser” by zoo visitors, had recently been eating half-meal portions.
But officials at the Panzhihua Zoo in Sichuan, China, claim there has been no noticeable drop in its weight.
They added the reduced meals had stressed the big cat out, so they had to stop.
Sun Quanhui, a senior scientific adviser at World Animal Protection, said the very least staff could do was make sure the leopard had to work to find the food by putting it in difficult-to-reach places.
Animal obesity is a growing concern in many zoos across China, primarily due to issues related to space constraints and improper feeding practices.
The Independent has always had a global perspective. Built on a firm foundation of superb international reporting and analysis, The Independent now enjoys a reach that was inconceivable when it was launched as an upstart player in the British news industry. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, and across the world, pluralism, reason, a progressive and humanitarian agenda, and internationalism – Independent values – are under threat. Yet we, The Independent, continue to grow.
