Pizza, the “saddest polar bear in the world”, has finally been released after international outrage over his living conditions.
The move comes after animal rights groups called for the permanent return home of Pizza whose home was in a shopping mall in southern China.
The three-year-old female polar bear, named Pizza, made headline around the world after Hong Kong-based Animal Asia in March posted an online video of the bear lying on her side in a glass-walled enclosure in the city of Guangzhou.
“Pizza the polar bear will temporarily leave Guangzhou and return to her birthplace,” the Grandview Mall Aquarium said on its official account on WeChat, a popular mobile-based Chinese social media platform.
The move was part of ongoing upgrades and “minor alterations” to the mall and the aquarium would remain open during Pizza’s absence, the post on Sunday said.
It did not say when Pizza, who quickly became known as “the saddest polar bear in the world”, was expected to return from the move to a zoo in the northeastern city of Tianjin.
Animal right groups have called for the move to be made permanent saying that conditions in the mall are unsuitable.
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 behaviour were evidence of mental decline.
The glass-walled room has no natural air or light, and she often paces around dejectedly while shaking her head violently from side-to-side.
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