Revered Chinese Panda Quan Quan Dies From Gas Poisoning

(July 28) -- Chinese police have detained a man in connection with the gas poisoning death of Quan Quan, revered as "the heroic mother" zoo panda who had given birth to seven cubs.

The 48-year-old man, identified only by his surname Yang, had hired workers to disinfect a former air raid shelter he had leased to grow mushrooms, the state news agency Xinhua reported today.

The shelter was near the Jinan Zoo's panda house in eastern Shandong Province, and toxic gas used by the workers leaked through an air pipe used to cool the pandas, fatally poisoning Quan Quan.

Quan Quan was 21 years old, the equivalent of more than 70 in human terms, the agency said. Once she became ill after inhaling carbon monoxide and chlorine she was taken to a hospital, but died Thursday after three hours of emergency treatment.

According to a spokeswoman for the local civil air defense office, which owns the shelter, it was not aware that the air pipe existed because it "was not included in the facility's design paper."

The pipe was installed in 1995 to help keep the pandas cool, a zoo spokesman told Xinhua.

Quan Quan is the second panda to die at Jinan in the last two years, according to a Los Angeles Times report from Beijing, which said animal welfare advocates see her death as a result of the lack of laws in China on how animals should be kept in zoos.

Pandas are among the world's most endangered species and are revered in China as a national symbol.

But according to Kat Loeffler, a veterinary adviser for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, pandas have died in captivity because of malnutrition, stress and poor veterinary treatment, the Times reported.

"These pandas are being bred for a life in captivity," Loeffler was quoted as saying. "Why are they being bred? Just so they can circulate through zoos and live next to old air raid shelters?"

Many of China's zoos are poorly managed or have insufficient funding, and animal deaths are common, Agence France-Presse said, citing Chinese state media reports. But because pandas are so rare, and revered, the agency said special attention was usually given to their welfare.

The death of Quan Quan, who was born at a breeding center in Sichuan Province, was described as "an extraordinary case and looks like an accident," according to Chang Jiwen, a scholar with the Institute of Law under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

But those responsible for drilling the air pipe should be held to account, and the Jinan Zoo management should take responsibility, he told Xinhua.

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Revered Chinese Panda Dies From Gas Poisoning

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