How are you doing! Chinese tourists shoot Moo Deng using Slingshots

Moo Deng flooded the Khao Kheow Open Zoo with visitors. Unfortunately, some of the visitors are adventurous and are in danger from the animals that travel there.

Reporting from UK Mirror On Tuesday (22/10/2024), a Chinese tourist was recorded throwing something into an animal cage using a slingshot. At the same time, two of his friends were standing next to him, laughing together.

Patcharida Chueakhamhod, a Thai citizen who visited the zoo that day, witnessed the incident. He comes to see Moo Deng. He then recorded the activities of the tourist group and made them viral.

“The tourist was shooting the animals in the zoo. At first, I couldn’t believe what they were doing. I looked carefully and saw that he was using a slingshot, so I recorded it as evidence,” he said.

Patcharida did not resist because of the language barrier. Besides, he was alone, Patcharida was afraid that he would get hurt later.

An optician clarified that. The tour group performed dangerous activities at Moo Deng’s cage. The group burned piles of dirt and rocks in the pedestrian area.

“I was surprised by what these tourists did. I only saw the video of the incident after the incident. So we could not catch them at the time of the incident,” said the guard.

But this case will not end just like that.

“We will write to the tour company that brought these people to the zoo. They must warn future guests about their behavior. I will also file a report with the authorities,” he said.

Moo Deng is a two-month-old pygmy hippo living at Khao Kheow Open Zoo. He was born on July 20, 2024 to Tony and Jonah and was named Moo Deng, which means lively pig, through a public opinion poll, with more than 20,000 people voting.

It attracted many people to the zoo after it became popular in September 2024 as a popular internet meme, after which its images were circulating on the internet.

His reputation skyrocketed when the zoo posted pictures of him on its Facebook page, showing him with cute gestures. Due to its popularity, the number of daily visitors to the zoo doubled in early September.

The Thai Zoological Park Group said the number of tourists reached 159,743, a significant increase from the August total of 98,046.

The pygmy hippopotamus is listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List and is classified in Appendix II of CITES.

The pygmy hippopotamus is a small hippopotamus native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, especially in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Papua New Guinea, and Ivory Coast.

Khao Kheow Zoo has banned slingshots after the incident.

(bl/fem)