Please adopt me! Desperate Chinese zoo receives US$360,000 donation after getting creative to cope with zero-Covid policy by allowing animal ‘adoptions’ to raise funds

A desperate zoo in China, struggling under Covid-19 restrictions, turns to live streams and animal adoptions to stay afloat

The zoo lost more than US$4.1 million in 2020 alone, about half of its annual revenue, due to forced closures and low attendance overall

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China’s zero-Covid policy claims unexpected victims, with one private zoo in the country’s east turning to live streams and animal adoptions to stay afloat. Photo: SCMP composite/Hongshan Forest Zoo

Published: 6:00pm, 10 Nov 2022

A privately run Chinese zoo has turned to social media live-streams and is offering animals for public adoption to raise funds in the face of falling attendance rates caused by China’s zero-Covid policy.

Hongshan Forest Zoo in Nanjing, Jiangsu in eastern China, said ticket sales account for 80 per cent of its income. However, visitor numbers had collapsed over the past three years amid China’s stringent coronavirus controls. At the same time, it still has to buy feed for the thousands of animals it keeps, Red Star News reported.

The zoo reopened on Thursday following the most recent two-week closure required by the latest coronavirus restrictions in the region.

“Hongshan Zoo is too poor to turn on the pot (a Chinese term meaning too poor to have any rice to cook meals),” an internet influencer named Qi Yingjun wrote on Weibo and called on the public to support the zoo.

When it was closed, the zoo would do three streams per day, including koalas eating leaves on a tree, wolves sleeping and the zoo’s employees preparing milkshakes for baby monkeys. Photo: Douyin

“It has zero income every day. It’s in a tough situation, and it needs the public’s help.”