A cash-strapped Finnish zoo said on Friday it was preparing to return two giant pandas on loan from China as it could no longer afford their upkeep. The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, nine months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Nordic country and signed a joint agreement on protecting the animals. FILE PHOTO: Female panda Jin Baobao, also called Lumi, is pictured at Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland February 17 , 2018. Lehtikuva/Roni Rekomaa via REUTERS Ahtari Zoo, a private company which had hoped the pandas would bring visitors to the central Finland location, said it had instead accumulated mounting debts as the pandemic curbed travel. Finland's government, which gave one-off support of 200,000 euros in 2021, declined an ap...
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A zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, is returning two giant pandas that had been on loan from China for 20 years, prompting celebrations by animal advocates who said the health of the animals had deteriorated due to neglect. The announcement on Wednesday came after months of criticism by In Defense of Animals and other advocacy groups that have accused the zoo of providing inadequate care to the pandas, Ya Ya and Le Le. Critics called on the zoo to provide them with better food, more uncaged time and ultimately a transfer to a panda refuge. LeLe the Giant Panda eats bamboo in his habitat at The Memphis Zoo, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht IDA posted a video on Twitter in February that showed the pandas pacing in circles around their enclosure as proof they were suffering fro...
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