AULA ANIMAL / PROYECTO DE EDUCACIÓN ANTIESPECISTA / aulaanimal@gmail.com

The saddest polar bear lives in a Mall in China

21 Abr 2017

Por Ana Sanz Martín

Esta unidad didáctica va dirigida a un grupo de 4 º ESO, enfocada para la materia de Inglés y programada para tres sesiones.

1ª SESIÓN

  • Inroducción del tema mediante la proyección del vídeo arriba mostrado.
  • How did you feel when watching the video?
  • How do you think the polar bear feels?

The ‘Saddest’ Polar Bear Lives in a Mall in China

BEIJING — In a shopping mall in southern China, a polar bear named Pizza paces past murals of icebergs in his glass enclosure. He shakes his shaggy head under artificial lights. He crouches by an air vent to sniff the outside world.

All are distress behaviors, say Chinese animal welfare advocates, who on Tuesday called on Zhu Xiaodan, the governor of Guangdong Province, where Pizza lives in an aquarium at the Grandview Mall in Guangzhou, to move the bear to a more appropriate environment. Pizza has become known as “the world’s saddest polar bear,” the advocates, from 48 organizations, wrote in an open letter to Mr. Zhu.

They added that they hoped that “the Guangdong government would close Grandview Polar Sea World.” Hundreds of animals are housed in small enclosures over several floors of the mall, including arctic wolves and beluga whales. They share the retail emporium with an electronic games arcade for children, a 3-D movie theater, a supermarket and leading domestic and international clothing brands. Escalators in an atrium run past signs advertising Swarovski and Estée Lauder products, noodle restaurants and coffee shops.

The activists say Pizza’s plight is part of a disturbing trend in China: exhibiting wild animals in malls to attract customers as more people turn to often cheaper and more convenient e-commerce.

At a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday, representatives of four of the animal welfare groups showed reporters photographs of an elephant used to sell cellphones outside a mall on the outskirts of Beijing and sea lions offered for interactions with shoppers who spend more than 500 renminbi, about $75, at another mall in Beijing. A “mall zoo” similar to Grandview is under consideration in Shijiazhuang, in Hebei Province, they said.

Questions:

1. “Animals deserve so much better than being enclosed in a glass box, with very little in it, to attract shoppers,” said Hu Chunmei of the Endangered Species Fund. “It shows a complete lack of regard for their welfare.” Do you agree with him?

2.  What do you think about its attitude? Could you describe it?

2ª SESIÓN

  • Exposición debate de lo trabajado en grupo en la sesión anterior.

3ª SESIÓN

  • Composición de la redacción: A day as Pizza.