IDK About These Panda Dogs, You Guys

According to the American Kennel Club, the Chow Chow might have originated in China as early as 200 B.C., and some artifacts from the ancient Han Dynasty have depictions of dogs that look very much like the black tongued Fluffy Bois we know today.

Although the dogs spent a thousand-plus years being used as hunting companions, royal collectibles for assorted emperors, and guard dogs, shortly after they were brought to the United Kingdom, they went on display at the London Zoo. As demoralizing as it had to be for those Chows to stand behind a sign describing them as "The Wild Dogs of China," at least they were still presented as actual dogs.

That's not the case for the six Chow Chows at the Cute Pet Games Cafe in Chengdu, China, because they've been dyed black and white to look like panda cubs. (Or at least that's how they look to the owner. To anyone with functional eyeballs, they look like dyed dogs.) Regardless, after a video of the animals' cosplay was posted on Chinese social media, the cafe has had to answer a lot of questions.

The owner, who has been identified only as Mr. Huang, said that he'd spent the equivalent of $210 per dog to color their fur, because each tube of imported dye costs $110. 'Although [the dogs] are not real pandas, we hope our customers can experience the [panda] culture in our shop," he told MailOnline. "The dye that was used on the dogs was tailor-made for them and 100 percent safe. Therefore, we bought the dye and hired specialists to put them on the dogs."

He also said that using artificial colors on dogs to turn them into equally artificial pandas was "popular overseas," and that the criticism his cafe had received was just from people who hadn't seen a dyed panda-dog before.

But some social media users have criticized the cafe's dogsploitation as potentially harmful, and totally unnecessary.

"Dogs are dogs. Dyeing them doesn’t turn them into pandas, and they are living beings," one commenter wrote, according to The Guardian. "I suggest dyeing the dog owners black and white," another added. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also spoke out against the cafe. "Animals should not be a tool for people to paint," a spokesperson said.

Huang was kind of right, though: Fake pandas have been trendy before, even in his own city. In 2014, a pet store in Chengdu started selling dyed Chow Chows as status symbols.

"There are no chemicals or cruelty involved. But the price of the dog does rise significantly because of the amount of grooming that goes into it," Hsin Ch'en, the store owner, said at the time. "People don't mind paying the extra though—they like the fact that heads turn in the street and they can tell their friends: 'I have a panda dog.'"

Still pretty sure that's just a dog dyed to look like a panda.