{"id":777,"date":"2025-07-17T16:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T16:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:08:15","slug":"chinese-restaurant-slammed-for-offering-cuddles-with-lion-cubs-and-theyre-not-the-only-wild-animals-diners-can-pet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese restaurant slammed for offering cuddles with LION cubs – and they\u2019re not the only wild animals diners can pet"},"content":{"rendered":"

A CHINESE restaurant has been slammed for offering lion cub cuddles alongside afternoon tea – and they are not the only wild animals diners can pet.<\/p>\n

Patrons at Wanhui Tower, based in Taiyuan city, offers a luxury<\/a> tea service that includes a “mascot interaction” with lion cubs for a hefty price tag of \u00a3124.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a><\/p>\n

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A Chinese restaurant offers tea time and cuddles with lion cubs for \u00a3124Credit: Xiaohongshu\/Daling\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

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The eatery has sparked fierce backlash from animal activistsCredit: Xiaohongshu\/Wanhui\"Workers<\/a><\/p>\n

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The restaurant, named Wanhui Tower, is based in the northern Chinese city of TaiyuanCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Patrons have been posting selfies cradling the cubs on Chinese social media<\/a> platforms like WeChat and Weibo, with some boasting they were also able to pet alpacas, deer, llamas and turtles \u2013 all while enjoying dessert.<\/p>\n

But the restaurant\u2019s bold move has triggered a flood of criticism and now a formal probe by the Shanxi Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau. <\/p>\n

Although Wanhui Tower was granted a licence to breed and display two African lions, authorities said that close human-animal contact is prohibited and that the matter is being handled “urgently” \u2013 a phrase in China<\/a> that often signals looming legal trouble.<\/p>\n

But the restaurant, located in northern China’s Shanxi province, is doubling down. <\/p>\n

The eatery claimed in a defiant statement: “We operate like zoos \u2013 why can\u2019t lions be used commercially?”<\/p>\n

Major animal rights groups have since pounced.<\/p>\n

Jason Baker, Senior Vice President of PETA<\/a>, said: “Tearing lion cubs from their mothers so diners can handle them over afternoon tea is exploitation, not entertainment.<\/p>\n

“These animals<\/a> are living, feeling beings, not toys.”<\/p>\n

He added the cubs were being “treated like nothing more than social media props.”<\/p>\n

Peter Li, China policy expert for Humane World for Animals, warned the stunt was “not only appallingly bad animal welfare, it\u2019s also potentially risky for customers.”<\/p>\n

China zoo slammed for painting donkeys black and white to look like zebras in ANOTHER ‘fake animal’ gaffe<\/p>\n

\u201cEven a young lion is capable of lashing out and injuring a human,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, treating wild animals like props is both morally unacceptable and dangerously irresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy adds to a growing list of bizarre and troubling wildlife gimmicks at entertainment venues across China.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, police<\/a> in Thailand<\/a> raided a \u201clion caf\u00e9\u201d in Phuket, arresting two Chinese nationals for illegally running a similar pet-a-cub scheme. <\/p>\n

Guests there could snap<\/a> photos with lion cubs for \u00a312\u2013\u00a323.<\/p>\n

Closer to home, a hotel near Chongqing drew fire after offering a \u201cred panda wake-up call,\u201d where guests could have the wild animals brought into their rooms and allowed to crawl into bed with them.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s zoos, too, are under the microscope.<\/p>\n

\"Chow<\/a><\/p>\n

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Another Chinese zoo was slammed by visitors after dyeing dogs to look like pandasCredit: Social media\"Donkey<\/a><\/p>\n

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Another zoo admitted to painting donkeys to look like zebrasCredit: AsiaWire<\/p>\n

In March, a \u201cvery big cat\u201d incident sparked fury after footage of a shockingly obese black panther at Chengdu Zoo went viral. <\/p>\n

The panther, aged 16, could barely walk, and social media lit up with criticism over her bloated condition. <\/p>\n

One commenter quipped: \u201cI thought she was pregnant, but it turned out that she was overweight. Please ask her to exercise more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another zoo in Zibo, Shandong province, was caught painting donkeys with black and white stripes to pass them off as zebras<\/a> \u2013 a stunt staff described as a \u201cmarketing strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, staff at Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu Province dyed chow chows to look like tiger cubs<\/a> in a brazen attempt to fool visitors.<\/p>\n

The same zoo previously painted puppies to look like pandas.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Obese<\/a><\/p>\n

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Chengdu Zoo, also in China, was slammed after videos surfaced showing an obese panther\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

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Footage shows dogs painted as tigers in the Taizhou ZooCredit: AsiaWire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A CHINESE restaurant has been slammed for offering lion cub cuddles alongside afternoon tea – and they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1312,1313,64,63,512,128,1311,1314,338],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animal-abuse","tag-animals","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-science","tag-section-newsworld-news","tag-social-media","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}