How a giant panda in the US is causing outrage in China

The giant panda "Ya Ya" has left the Memphis Zoo and is en route to China, according to a Chinese state news agency. Videos of the panda went viral and sparked outrage in China, with many Chinese people and some animal advocates accusing the zoo of mistreatment. CNN's Selina Wang reports. #CNN #News

65 comments

    1. ​@Edward Snowden I don’t care that he’s bashing them. They run their mouths bashing us non-stop while committing far worse human rights violations.

  1. Shame of amercia of torturing of an innocent panda!!! The whole world is watching how USA is treating an animal, so much double standard of amercians!

    1. Not to mention the minorities and others the CCP persecute. If the panda has suffered neglect this is appalling. However, an independent vet should be consulted. It could have a skin condition.

    2. No, we cannot say that.
      USA respects human right and animal rights the most.
      USA is showing full of love to panda to demonstrate how much love it showed the panda.
      Surely the entire world agree USA is benevolent.
      The entire world really really have eyes to see, this exceptional country is really exceptional.
      Nobody in this world has ever seen panda so well taken care as in USA.

      Go USA, USA, USA, show your love.

    1. @Jessica Hebin
      Agree with Rex Worthy. However, it is undeniable that the relationship between countries affects some people’s personal thoughts, which may also be what some people want to explain to you.

    2. @Jessica Hebin It’s pretty easy to explain. Like you gave your friend a cat, then 10 years later when you visit your friend, you find out that the cat is in a very poor dying condition. Maybe you won’t mind and not say anything, but certainly I will mind and I will talk to my friend about it.

    3. @Philip W neither of the pandas were/are in poor condition. One of them died suddenly from a heart problem (which is normal for humans animals near the end of their lives, the panda was 25). The other panda was in fantastic health, but doesn’t look that way bc it has a skin condition that makes the fur patchy sometimes.
      The Memphis zoo has records of all feeding, defecating, and veterinarian care for both bears. It is well-documented that they were taken great care of.

      So to make your analogy more accurate, it is like if I gave two cats to a friend. 5 years later, the friend said that one of the cats has a skin condition, but it doesn’t affect their overall health or well-being. Then 10 years after that, the cat without the skin condition dies. Then I go to see the friend and the living cat has patchy fur. When I ask why this cat looks in bad condition, the friend says, “you remember the skin condition I said she has? This is what it looks like, that’s all. I take great care of her.” And then hands me paperwork showing that the cat is receiving great care.
      In that case, no, I would not be worried one bit.

  2. The panda probably got lonely. It’s poor optics, though, to see the animal in such a bad condition.

    1. Yeah, the zoo agrees, it’s been sent home. I don’t expect that to be a good thing for the panda though should the condition continue, China doesn’t do bad optics.

    2. The animal probably acquired depression. People assume wild animals and animals and general don’t get this. It probably is a combination of age, because all pandas we tend to see are younger ones. And depression. The issue is that the caretakers here may not know enough about their psychology to be able to reverse some of it. Usually
      It’s bringing a second animal or third. Getting them back into a group. And some animals do need special treatment and even medication for a while.

    3. @Irene’s Wacky Journals She was treated properly, and got care from staff from China that work with pandas. That people have never seen a sick animal is Shocking. And maybe most people have never seen animal in the wild or knows that animal can have diseases and become sick.

  3. 🤔 I’m concerned too why one panda already died at Memphis Zoo younger than 30 yrs. and now 🐼 Yaya looks like that! Or why she appeared to be banging her head on the floor several times. That’s completely unacceptable and seems a sign of neglect or lacking in mental stimulation. She’s also probably lonely now that her friend had died.

    1. I see you didnt watch the video and are just being ignorant. Pandas usually die younger than 30. Hope this helps to educate you

  4. Do you know Fubao? She is a baby panda born in South Korea. She is happiest panda in the world. Search Youtube. so many video.

    1. Fubao is known as the panda with the most toys to play with. She is Princess Fu with her own, slide, swing, and other toys all handmade by her caregiver Grandpa Kang.

    2. Is Fubao the panda whose fur of ear was bited by another panda? He is the only two pandas I can recognize. The other is Huahua looks like rice ball.

    3. Our princess FuBao is doing so well in China. I feel regret we will have to separate her from nanny Kang in the future. Hopefully maybe she can be send there again for diplomacy again. This thought is a huge constrast to how much I want YaYa back.

    1. Trust me. They do the same thing with humans too.

      “I’m sick and need to rest today.”
      “No you’re not! Because I said so!”

    2. It’s Memphis, TN I would bet my house that it isn’t being taken care of. Memphis has one of the highest populations of African Americans in the whole country and African Americans treat all animals with contempt

  5. Yaya and Lele were mistreated for over a decade! so Lele died while the zoo was on streams, people over the USA watched it and saw Lele sudden collapsed on the floor but no zoo staff took action. Yaya was unhealthy at all with dried bamboo sticks and not enough food for her. Look! only a month after Chinese expert team arrived the Mimphis zoo, they took care of Yaya and she looked better and healthy enough to return home. Today in China Apr.27, 2023 she arrived at Shanghai zoo.

  6. Idk what’s going on at this zoo but I just want Yaya to be ok. Animals should be respected and taken care of especially in captivity being we placed them there involuntarily…

  7. For the past month,caretakers from the Beijing zoo came to take care and prepare YaYa for the trip home. Under their care, YaYa’s health condition and energy has very visibly improved. That is the biggest proof that it was Memphis zoo’s mistreatment and negligence

    right before LeLe’s death, the Memphis zoo director said his health check showed he was perfectly healthy. If true, then it made little sense for LeLe to just suddenly die

    1. @金云 that you know of. And doesn’t necessarily mean that the other parent did not have a gene for heart issues. You do realize that is normal. Evernote has a coded area of defect. An abnormality which gives an understanding of what you will die from. For instance, if mammals are long lived but have a tendency of genetically developing arthritis by around 60. Your probability from that side of the family regardless of animal is to get that. And due to not having knowledge even in human genetics on how to change some of this which is not a guarantee, we can’t really prevent it. We can try to slow it down yes. The animal can eat healthy food, can have a large area, can have community if that helps the species, and can have a reduction of pollutants. But that does not guarantee that the genes can be overridden. It’s something Americans are obsessed with/ we want to reverse aging, we want to reverse cancer, we want to reverse heart issues. This is why we push for plant based eating. Yet, you as a human which are mammalian can do everything right and when you are 80 develop the cancer your genes said you’d get. The same applies to animals. We know pandas in general live longer in captivity. Therefore even the genetic component you mention there indicates that in captivity, the panda has genetics to live longer. But if coronary issues run in the genetic makeup they most likely will die from it.

    2. @MustardSandwich quite frankly sY that age it is understandable. Skin by the way thins out with age. I know you are 10-20 at most even if a bot, but it happens. Hair falls out with age, it’s quite normal especially if there are genetic and auto immune conditions. Alopecia is not a result of humans mistreating themselves it is just a Russian roulette. Our bodies sag, our skins dehydrate, our teeth fall out as their enamel deteriorates and our gums dry up. Organs start to age and some start to fail. Polyps develop in the intestines as our internal universe starts to fade. This is whining in all animals. Have a cat for 20 years and you will see how they age, similar to us. Also humans develop bruising as we age in fact it’s a side effect of blood thinners which a large segment acquire and/or thinning skin. Though larger bruises tend to be thinners

  8. Being a native of Memphis and a Zoo membership holder, the exhibit was exciting and very beautiful when we first start going. In the last 5 years it has taken a tremendous nose dive. The pandas looked excessively malnourished. Pandas are not as big in captivity. However those Pandas were smaller than the Orangutans

    1. @Irene’s Wacky Journals Because most Chinese were angry enough about the poor condition of Yaya. If those Chinese experts said the panda was abused, it would have caused another shxt storm. The US-China tension was already at a historic-high.

  9. Yaya was unusually thin before the 2 experts came from China to take care of it. With the care of the 2 experts, Yaya started gaining weight. At least when LeLe or Yaya showed problems (whether problems not related to the management of the zoo), the zoo should have dealt with the panda’s problems and found ways to help them. One easy method was to consult the panda experts in China. The plights did not happen overnight. If the zoo did not approach the experts in China before demise of Lele, then, it was obvious that the zoo was at fault. I do not care where the zoo is. Even if the zoo was in China, the zoo should take the blame. Please respect animals and their rights. To me, zoos are the hiding place for animals which cannot survive in the wild. They need proper protection. I believe that many people (Chinese or non Chinese) share the same feelings in respect of what happened to the 2 pandas.

    1. The eat hundreds of thousands of dogs a year LOL who cares about a bear I guess one bear’s life is more than hundreds of thousands of dogs

  10. Wow. That’s the WORST abused panda I’ve ever seen in my life! And I’m saying this regardless of politics!

    1. Where’s the part where you said those poor hundreds of thousands of dogs maybe even millions they eat every year? I didn’t see that one

  11. It doesn’t take an animal expert to see the Panda is not well. It’s enclosure needs to be large enough to replicate in size what it would have normally in the wild. Unfortunately so many in the US keep animals in VERY substandard conditions. Such as Sea World.

    1. what about the experts telling you she has a genetic skin and fur condition? Is that good enough for you Mr. Scientist?

  12. This poor bear is thrown in a prison, and we wonder what is going on with him. This Panda has feelings, awareness, family and much more than we know. What we are doing to the bear is a sin.

  13. died of hard attack meant the life of lele was under constant stress! yaya was unusal thin and fbody was in ilthy condition until her plight was exposed to the public. the fur and body condition of yaya was visibly improved after two chinese panda experts took over the care of yaya’s daily life. she was so delighted when she received fresh, tender bamboos, almost smiling, that broke my heart! for a big name zoo, you could not even get fresh, tender bamboos?

  14. It’s hard to believe that some people in the United states that work with animals for a living would do something like this. They get into this kind of work because they love animals and would never want to see harm to any animal however there are exceptions sometimes. If there is an exception(which I don’t believe there is) then get after the culprits.. I really don’t see it though..

  15. Now we need MeiXiang’s family home. Never in my life have I seen a panda cub run AWAY from a zookeeper.

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