Recently, three leopards escaped from a safari park in Hangzhou, a city of over 10 million. The park kept the incident quiet for more than two weeks, worried about affecting business during China’s May holiday week (May 1- May 6), and thus, endangering public safety.
After sightings of leopards wandering the city were reported and it became the most searched topic on Chinese social media, local authorities eventually sent out search teams. Soon, netizens and media criticized their treatment of the cats as animal cruelty.
