Hotel told ‘world's cutest wake-up service' is cruel and must stop
A Chinese hotel has been told it must stop waking guests up with red pandas.
Lehe Ledu Liangjiang Holiday Hotel, a popular family resort in Chongqing, currently offers guests the chance to be awakened by the russet-tinted mammals. Many guests are attracted to the hotel solely for its red panda wake-up experience, which involves one of the fluffy animals being led into a guest's bedroom in the morning.
The animal is then allowed to walk around the room freely and climb onto the duvet-covered bed if it wishes. The service has become a hit online, earning the title "the world's cutest wake-up service."
One British couple, Reanne and Ben, documented the experience on their YouTube channel On Tour With Dridgers. In their video, the red panda can be seen wandering along the hotel corridor with a staff member, entering the room, chomping a chunk of apple, and then climbing onto the couple's bed.
The seemingly friendly and relaxed panda allows the duo to stroke it while eating apple from their hands.
Now, the Chongqing Forestry Bureau has asked the hotel to stop all activities that allow contact between guests and red pandas. It has sent a team to the hotel to conduct an on-site investigation and said it will release the results of this visit soon.
While the nature of the Forestry Bureau's concerns is not currently clear, the attraction has long attracted criticism online from those who warn it could lead to injury of both animal and human, as well as the transmission of diseases. The general welfare of the pandas is also a concern.
The hotel said that the red pandas are borrowed from a zoo, have been vaccinated, and are cared for by dedicated staff. They told China Newsweek that four red pandas are kept on-site and are on a rota for guest visits.
Sun Quanhui, a scientist from the World Animal Protection organisation, told the Global Times that red pandas are a nationally protected wild species. Sun said that they should not be kept as pets or used for tourism-related entertainment, warning that their sensitive natures could lead them to become stressed in such an environment.
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