Animal rights groups have begged for the permanent return home of “the saddest polar bear in the world” on display in a shopping mall in southern China.
The three-year-old female polar bear, named Pizza, is to be freed temporarily to her birthplace while the centre carries out renovations.
The sad polar bear had become a focus of global media attention since July when Hong Kong-based Animal Asia posted an online video of the bear lying on her side in a glass-walled enclosure in the city of Guangzhou.
Animal right groups have called for the move to be made permanent. Sending Pizza back after her return home would be “cruel and heartless”, Peter Li, a campaigner at Humane Society International, said in a statement.
“No amount of renovation could ever make a shopping mall a suitable place for this animal,” he said.
In October, Humane Society International along with three Chinese animal rights groups called for the mall to be closed, saying that footage of Pizza’s pacing and head swaying behavior were evidence of mental decline.