lion<\/a> cubs as if they were babies in pictures and video clips posted online on China\u2019s Wechat and Weibo platforms.\n <\/p>\n\n The Wanhui restaurant in Taiyuan city features llamas, turtles and deer in addition to the cubs on its page on Douyin, China\u2019s counterpart to social media app TikTok.\n <\/p>\n
\n Wanhui, which opened in June, sells about 20 tickets a day to customers looking to snuggle with the animals as part of a set menu costing 1,078 yuan ($150), the state-run Shanghai Daily said on its official Wechat page.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe service has raised serious concerns about legality and animal welfare,\u201d the English-language newspaper added.\n <\/p>\n
\n Reuters was unable to independently contact Wanhui.\n <\/p>\n
\n Online comments were mostly critical, saying the venture was dangerous and not good for the animals.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is for the rich to play,\u201d said one Weibo user. \u201cOrdinary people even can\u2019t afford to drink.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Another user urged action by the authorities, adding, \u201cThe relevant departments should take care of it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The incident comes just after authorities investigated a hotel in June for offering a \u201cwake-up service\u201d starring red pandas, state media said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The hotel in the southwestern region of Chongqing allowed the animals to climb onto beds to awaken guests.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reuters \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Teatime revels in China now include hugs with lion cubs in a four-course afternoon set offered…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-66928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114862373183448359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}