Edinburgh Zoo Will Have Two Expensive Giant Pandas

Authorities from the Edinburgh Zoo are excited to announce they are going to have new residents: two Giant Pandas brought from China. Even if these new creatures will increase the popularity of the facility, members of eco-groups claim their intention has a rather insignificant conservation value and is a waste of money.

The Scottish Government refused to back this project; therefore, the Edinburgh Zoo authorities had to go through their own pockets to support the costs of leasing these amazing creatures from China. Apparently, the Giant Pandas come along with a considerable price tag, Wildlifeextra.com reports.

The Zoo borrowed £2 million ($3,139 million/€2,340 million) from Lloyds Bank to cover this investment, earlier this year, in March.

It appears that these bears are really expensive, since the Scottish officials will have to pay up to £1.4 million ($2,197 million/€1,63 million) every year for ten years, according to their agreement with the Chinese providers.

Since the facility has dig deep for this amount, Animal Concern issued a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), indicating that the advertising campaign suggested these animals would come to Scotland for free and therefore this initiative is considered “untrue” and “misleading.”

Moreover, the organization is against the adoption of those two Giant Pandas, declaring that this strategy highlights a desperate attempt of the Edinburgh Zoo to increase its own profit margins, since it has a low conservation value or none at all.

Animal Concern base their theory on the fact that environmental challenges experienced by China, like habitat destruction, deforestation and the raising level or greenhouse gas emissions can't be changed though such actions. Same goes for the fate of vulnerable pandas.

The organization indicates such actions only aim to increase the popularity and profit of ZOOs, without having a real beneficial impact on wildlife panda populations. Moreover, it considers this path an “extremely dubious waste of public money.”