Dog 'Lion' At Chinese Zoo Didn't Fool As Many People As They'd Hoped

No lion -- that's a dog.

Visitors at the zoo in the People's Park of Luohe in Henan, China, got in an uproar after a Tibetan mastiff was placed in a cage labeled "African lion." According to the AFP, the dog spoiled the not-so-clever ruse when it began to bark.

Judging by pictures of the exhibit that circulated on Chinese Twitter analog Sina Weibo, the so-called "lion" wasn't all that convincing to begin with:

Sina Weibo via South China Morning Post

Lions are cats, by the way. People do seem to have trouble remembering that.

According to AFP, visitors felt cheated out of the 15 yuan ($2.45) they'd spent to see the bogus exhibit, which also reportedly mislabeled "coypu rodents in a snake's cage, a white fox in a leopard's den, and another dog in a wolf pen."

"The African lions will be back. They went to another zoo to breed," a zoo administrator reportedly told the Oriental Daily, as quoted by the South China Morning Post.

Sure. They're off "breeding." Maybe when they come back, they'll have cubs: Cubs that look suspiciously like Tibetan mastiff puppies. Fortunately, that wouldn't be a total loss, considering how cute they are.

Here's another look at Tibetan mastiffs, which are so popular in China that people have reportedly paid $750,000 for prize-winning specimens -- despite not having the space to keep them.