Keepers have defended themselves saying the pandas were being violent and that the footage had been edited. Panda keeper Guo Jingpeng said that on 12 July, he was feeding milk to the panda cubs, just as he does every day, when one of them suddenly became aggressive. It bit my hand really hard, its teeth cut into the flesh and my hand started bleeding, Guo said.When it tried to bite me again, I pushed it away out of instinct.Guo also said that he has been targeted through the video. The over 50-minute video was intentionally edited into less than two minutes of footage, he said. Humane Society Internationals China Policy expert Dr Peter Li has responded the video saying The action of this panda keeper is hard to defend and so it is good to see that the Chengdu facility has not tried to do so. Pandas are wild animals and so anyone working with them should be properly trained so that they can interact with them without resorting to the kind of rough handling that we see in the video. Dragging and throwing any animal is unacceptable, and the outrage that has been expressed on social media for this globally-adored species is typical these days of growing animal welfare concern among Chinas citizens.
