[File photo]

Authorities in Lanzhou, Gansu province have denied rumors of plans for a hunting area in a local zoo, stressing that such a plan would not be approved by the government.

The zoo, which covers an area of 270 square kilometers, is even bigger than the city’s main urban area. A hunting zone was reportedly planned to built inside the zoo, offering visitors a chance to go on "safari" to hunt wild animals, the Lanzhou Morning News reported in August.

The news soon went viral online, angering the public and a number of animal rights organizations. In October, Saving Performing Animals, a Beijing-based animal welfare organization, sent an inquiry to authorities in Lanzhou, demanding that the government stop the construction of the hunting area and publicize the issue.

In a letter to Thepaper.cn from Lanzhou Ecological Construction and Management Bureau on Nov. 9, the government denied the rumor of the hunting zone, adding that the zoo will in fact contain a center devoted to animal protection and science.

“The mission to build such a large zoo makes us nervous, as we don’t have much experience with comparable projects. The idea of building a hunting area might have been mentioned during government discussions, but we have never approved such a plan, and will not approve anything [related to hunting],” a bureau official surnamed Yang told Thepaper.cn.

“The purpose of having a zoo is to promote animal protection and respect animal lives. Building a hunting area in a zoo would be an ideological regression, which goes against the development of a civilized [society],” said Sun Quanhui, a senior science adviser at World Animal Protection.

Echoing Sun, Wu Xiaomin, a research fellow from Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, said that it would be inappropriate to combine a hunting area with a zoo.

“A zoo normally harbors wild animals from many regions and countries, while animals being hunted are normally domesticated ones with large populations. I’ve never seen a hunting area built in a zoo,” Wu said.