“Panda’s are not gods”
The Governor of Tokyo is famous for talking without thinking and his latest outburst has targeted panada’s.
Controversial Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has thrown government plans to ask China for a new panda into disarray with a crude verbal assault on the endangered animals, saying “they’re not gods” and questioning whether Tokyo needs pandas.
Ishihara’s outburst came following the death of Ling Ling, a 22-year-old panda that died on Wednesday at Ueno Zoo, leaving the animal park without one of the enormously popular pandas for the first time in 36 years.
And the governor’s anti-panda rhetoric also coincided neatly with the national government’s attempts to be sound out its Chinese counterpart about the chances of getting a new panda for Tokyo.
“It’s not like (pandas) are sacred or anything. Do we really need them?” the governor told reporters during a regular news conference. “Living creatures die. Pandas die. The world’s not such a big place anymore, so if people want to see pandas, they should go to where the pandas are.”
After Ling Ling died, Ueno Zoo boss Teruyuki Komiya said that he would be delighted to have another chance to look after pandas.
In a related development, meanwhile, Ueno Zoo said it will donate Ling Ling’s body to the National Museum of Science and Nature located near its boundaries. The museum plans to stuff Ling Ling and put the panda on display.
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