A panda at a zoo in southern China attacked a student who snuck into its pen hoping for a cuddle with the endangered bear, state media said Saturday. The 20-year-old male student surnamed Liu jumped over the fence at the zoo in the tourist city of Guilin, ignoring warning signs not to, Xinhua news agency said.

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“The panda, named Yangyang, was wide awake. Apparently scared by the intruder, he bit at Liu’s arms and legs,” it quoted an unnamed worker as saying after zoo keepers managed to calm the bear and rescue Liu, the report said.

“Yangyang was so cute and I just wanted to cuddle him,” Liu was quoted as saying from his hospital bed. “I didn’t expect he would attack.”

23 replies on “I Will Call Him George”

  2. i’ve noticed a tendency among the chinese i know–and know of through them, to keep their children “young” and sheltered for a long time. this twenty-year old was actually not an adult, and it shows.

  8. TINY TUNES SHOUT OUT! “I will call him George. I will hold him and pet him and squeeze him and love him ALL UP!” God, I miss that show… Um, tragic about the panda and stuff.

  9. The dummying up of people creates these type of situations. Mascots, cute cuddly toys, animals talking in cartoons….
    Sometimes I think some people are just stuck in a child like world.

  10. The image reminds me more of the soon-to-be former Senator Stevens of Alaska, in his famous film clip saying “no”. So can we call him “Ted” instead? Not to be confused with Teddy.

  12. what a fucking idiot.

    hey suze @8, that whole ‘call him george’ bit goes way back before tiny toons, bugs bunny used to get that treatment from the abominable snow man all the time.

  13. This is why Chinese people should not do ex.

    And @ 12: might as well complete the timeline by pointing out it’s all a reference to Lenny Small from Of Mice and Men.

  16. Hey douglas @#12

    While chastising someone for calling out a Tiny Toons reference, you might want to check your own on that one.

    The original line is from a little tome known as “Of Mice and Men”

  17. Yeah, because white and black and brown kids don’t do stupid things when they’re 20 years old, and certainly things like drunk driving and expecting it to turn out OK isn’t as naive as trying to hug a panda.

  19. i suspected someone would get all over me for noticing a cultural tendency among people i’ve gotten to know. whatever. the upside is, those kids aren’t generally getting into the kinds of trouble that involve being “grown up” like sex, drugs and driving fast–so there is an upside.

  22. In wild Panda populations, the Cuteness Gene was selected for because of the advantages it brought — the cuter Pandas were more likely to lure food to within striking range, and thus more likely to live and pass on their genes to the next generation. In human populations up until recently, the “desire to hug wild animals” Gene was selected against. This story is a pretty clear illustration of how that worked.

    Those bears get all plump and cuddly from their healthy diet of over-eager wildlife affection-seekers. Call it the Treadwell diet.

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