China Zoo Allegedly Glue Basket To Tortoise For Visitors To Throw Coins Into

Fancy yourself as a self-righteous animal rights activist?

Well, you might want to steer clear of this one.

According to WorldOfBuzz, the Nanning Zoo in Guangxi, China, has made international headlines for situating an African spurred tortoise in an enclosure with a basket and Chinese flag stuck to its back, for no other reason than to…

Lure superstitious visitors into heaping coins into the basket.

Or in other words, they were making extra money off the back of a tortoise. Literally.

Well, I did warn you to steer clear of this one.

China Zoo Glue Basket To Tortoise For Visitors To Throw Coins Into

China’s a rather happening place. But here’s the thing:

Not all is positive, like the article headline I’m about to write on.

As mentioned above, the Nanning Zoo in Guangxi, China, has made the front page of international news websites after they placed an African spurred tortoise in an enclosure with a basket on its back, in a transparent attempt to draw ‘donations’.

According to LadBible, Tea-tia, who took the pictures of the tortoise, showcased images of the incident through his Weibo account and professed his intrigue on why the zoo would use such a method to exhibit animals.

“I don’t know why the zoo would use this method to exhibit precious animals,” he reportedly said.

In response, the answer might be linked to a superstitious ritual over in China, where throwing coins is considered to bring good luck. This notion, however, is somewhat subjective considering how a Chinese lady had thrown coins into the engine of a plane, causing the plane to be grounded for 5 whole hours as maintenance crew fished out the coins that would have led to a catastrophic failure.

So yeah, it doesn’t always lead to good luck, so don’t go throwing your coins at your brat of a sister just yet.

Incidentally, the African spurred tortoise has been categorised as “vulnerable to extinction” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List, due to a combination of habitat loss, trading in the Japanese market and it being a “delicacy to certain nomadic tribes”.

Investigations Are Now Ongoing

According to reports, zoo officials have latched onto the issue, and are currently pursuing legal investigations on the matter.

Only a matter of time now, I guess.

As such, we hope that things will turn out well and that the poor tortoise will eventually have the ludicrous burden lifted off his back.

The basket and flag, I mean. Not the shell. Sorry dude/gal, you’ll just have to soldier on with the shell on your back forever.

Just life, my friend.