Chinese man realises his pet is a bear .... not a dog !!

In every poultry farm, there would be hundreds of chicken of both sexes – how to segregate ?Chick sexing is the method of distinguishing the sex of chicken and other hatchlings, usually by a trained person called a chick sexer.  Chicken sexing is practiced mostly by large commercial hatcheries to separate female chicks or hens (destined to lay eggs for commercial sale) from the males or cocks (most of which are killed within days of hatching because they are irrelevant to egg production). The females and a limited number of males kept for meat production are then put on different feeding programs appropriate for their commercial roles.

In poultry segment, females are most wanted – males are unwanted for meat production – and so killed almost immediately to be consumed elsewhere.  People buying pets have similar problem – the other day, friend of mine, picked up a new born pup from a Railway station – unsure of what breed it was ! Unless a dog is purchased directly from a breeder, it may be difficult to know exactly which breed that dog is. Shelters are filled with puppies and adult dogs waiting for adoption. Some are clearly purebred, while others are obviously mixes of two or more breeds. While every dog is equally deserving of love and care regardless of his breed, it's still fun to figure out that dog's heritage. It can also be useful to know a dog's heritage for medical purposes since some breeds are prone to specific health issues.

Away from all this, can you imagine – somebody raising a pet for an year, only to find out they were not what he thought them to be !!! ~ unbe(ar)liveable – when they turn out to be ‘bears’ thought as ‘puppies’~ MailOnline reports about a man from China, surprised totally when he discovered that his beloved pet dogs were, in fact, two black bears.Wang Kayui, from the village of Yunnan, bought the cubs two years ago from a Vietnamese man, while he was planting banana trees on the border on China and Vietnam.However, it was only when he read some conservation leaflets that he realised that his 'puppies' were actually an endangered species, reported People's Daily Online.

As they grew up the bears began to look less like dogs and weighed 100lbs each. To begin with, Wang had no idea that there was anything unusual about his pets and he bathed and groomed them everyday.The proud owner also said that the cubs were very well behaved and had healthy appetites. Alarm bells only began ringing when the animals grew up, as alongside gaining a greater desire for food, the pair started looking less and less like dogs and weighed 100lbs each.They also displayed strange behaviour, such as killing and eating Wang's pet chickens.

Despite this, it was only when Wang saw some leaflets from the local Public Security Bureau on endangered wild animals, that he recognised that he had been illegally keeping Category 2 protected endangered animals by accident. After talking to his family, Wang decided to give the two bears to the local Forest Public Security Bureau, in the hope that the police would be able to re-home the animals for him.On 30th June, the police came to take Wang's pets from the cages in which he had been keeping them and they were taken in by the Yunnan Wild Animal Rescue Centre.

Feng Lingui, a spokesman for the animal rescue centre, said that the animals have been identified as two Asian black bears, a male and a female, and are in good health. The rescue centre is now working on suitable arrangements for the furry siblings.Asian black bears are classed as 'vulnerable' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.This is mainly because of deforestation and people hunting them for their body parts.

The large animals are not considered safe to keep as they frequently attack humans without any serious provocation.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

8^th July 2015.