A Chinese zoo has expelled a keeper after he was exposed abusing a South China Tiger cub from an endangered species under first-class state protection. Nanchang Zoo, in the southern province of Jiangxi, sacked the employee after a video clip showing him and a friend abusing the cub was uploaded onto the internet on Wednesday causing widespread public outrage. The clip, apparently captured by a surveillance camera, showed the keeper, dressed in a red, dangling the young cub upside down, flipping it around and repeatedly slapping it on the face inside a feeding room at the zoo. At one point he is seen grabbing the animal by a foreleg and shaking it violently, despite its weak attempts at resistance. Later in the video he appears to accidentally drop the dazed creature to the floor. As the footage continues a different man appears in the room, lifts the cub by its front legs and waves it around in the air, manipulating it as if it were a child’s doll. The time signature on the screen suggests the abuse occurred on three separate occasions; Monday afternoon, Monday evening, and early on Tuesday morning. It was not clear who uploaded the video. The film quickly went viral and sparked public condemnation, with one commentator writing: “Try abusing its parents if you really got guts”. Nanchang Zoo verified the report on Thursday via its official account on its Weibo microblog. “Our zoo keeper has apparently conducted inappropriate actions and had brought a non-employee into the cub room without any permission” it said in a posting. The keeper had been expelled from the zoo, it added. Answering concerns over the animal’s welfare it said: “Our zoo has conducted a thorough check-up of the South China Tiger cub and found it did not sustain any injuries and was in a good health.” The zoo apologised for loopholes in its regulations and promised to reinforce education of ethics among its staff. The South China Tiger is a subspecies native to the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has identified the subspecies as a critically-endangered and possibly extinct in the wild. Latest estimations put the number known alive at about 100, all held in captivity in China.
