A polar bear dubbed the “world’s saddest” by animal rights activists has been removed from a Chinese shopping mall where campaigners said it was suffering in unsuitable conditions.
The Grandview Mall in the southern city of Guangzhou held a farewell party for Pizza the bear at the weekend, it said on social media.
A spokesman for the mall, which set up an “Ocean World” attraction with 500 species to try to draw in shoppers, told AFP: “Pizza left the aquarium with escorts after the farewell party” on Sunday.
Chinese media reports said he was returning to the facility where he was born in captivity in the northern port of Tianjin.