Now, a wildlife park that allows ‘live’ feeding

SHANGHAI - In a first of its kind, a wildlife park in China is offering a “live feeding service” to attract more visitors and increase revenue, though education experts have said such “barbaric scenes” may be harmful to children.

The Shanghai Wildlife Park has started a tour inside the park, where visitors can purchase a live chicken for 60 yuan ($8.5) and take a modified bus to feed it to the carnivores.

The visitors can move the live chicken outside the bus through an iron tube. It falls to the ground and is promptly attacked and eaten by bears, tigers or lions while the people watch from the safety of the bus, park officials said.

“If the animals are given prepared food, carnivores will lose their ability or desire to hunt,” Pan Weihua, the park’s corporate planning manager, was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Daily.

This opportunity can help visitors to observe the true nature of animals, he said.

Education experts, however, said these performances can harm children because they may not understand how animals actually live in the wild.

“Such a bloody scene will leave a shadow on children,” said Sang Biao, a psychology professor at East China Normal University.

Pan said parents can choose whether or not to allow their children to watch the “live feeding show”.

Though the Shanghai Wildlife Park signed a convention in 2005, along with 24 other zoos across the country, stating it will not feed live animals to carnivores in front of visitors, the convention only covers big livestock, not small animals such as chickens or rabbits.