UK wildlife park offers to relocate 'world's saddest polar bear' from Chinese mall
A polar bear at the Grandview Aquarium (Animals Asia)
GUANGZHOU, China (KTVU) - He's been called "the world's saddest" polar bear. But now there may be hope for the ice bear known as Pizza, who has been housed in a mall aquarium in China.
A U.K. wildlife park is now offering to take in the animal.
Images of the large animal looking sluggish and listless captured headlines around the globe and triggered a campaign to shut down the Grandview Center in Guangzhou where Pizza lives.
The owners of the indoor zoo insist they have made improvements to the facility in recent months, but animal activists say the conditions remain cramped and unsuitable.
The animal welfare group, Animals Asia, launched a petition drive and says it has received more than half a million signatures to shut down the facility.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster, England has stepped forward with an offer to relocate Pizza to its facility.
The park's “Project Polar” exhibit is designed as a conservation and rehabilitation facility for polar bears in captivity and in the wild.
The 10 acre reserve includes two lakes, including one large enough to allow bears a place to dive as they would in the wild.
Animals Asia says no payment is being offered for Pizza himself, due to fears "that any funds could be used to buy more animals."
There is no word on if the Grandview Center has accepted the offer.