Visitors to the Shanwei Zoo in China’s eastern Guangdong province became suspicious of the two ‘pandas’ when one of them started panting, barking, and shaking their heads like dogs.

Hilarious footage of the panda-dogs quickly went viral online, with many pointing out that it was quite clear that the zoo’s main attraction was a pair of badly painted dogs.

Facing pressure, Shanwei Zoo tried to pass off the animals as a rare breed of “panda dogs”, before having to admit that they had just dyed two puppies black and white to resemble pandas.

When asked why they had tried to scam visitors, a representative for the zoo simply said that “there are no panda bears at the zoo, and we wanted to do this as a result.”

Outraged visitors responded to the revelation by demanding their money back from the zoo, which claims to be home to “rare and exotic animals”.

Users online had an absolute field-day with the panda dogs, baffled that anyone fell for it.

“They had to start barking for them to realise they weren’t pandas?” one X user asked.

“From the creators of the willy wonka experience,” another quipped.

Most just couldn’t believe it was only for the barking, that the panda-dogs lost their merit.

“It was the BARKING that gave it away?!” one said.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said on their website: “Forcing an animal to endure this kind of suffering isn’t trendy — it’s abusive.”

@thesun The visitor to the zoo in China demanded their money back when two 'pandas' in an enclosure bizarrely began barking #news #viraltiktok #viral_video #funnyvideo #hilarious #pet #dog #animal #zoo #crazymoments ♬ original sound - The Sun