Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe BEIJING, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A safari park in north China has dyed its wild monkeys' fur in bright colors to celebrate the lunar Year of the Monkey, which began Thursday. The monkeys at the Forest Safari Park in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, were tinted in rainbow colors including bright red and golden yellow, the official Xinhua news agency reported, in hopes of attracting more tourists and increasing the park's revenue. Advertisement A park employee said the monkeys were "not cooperative," and had to be anaesthetized for the procedure. Local zoologists and chemists were of the opinion the dyes could harm the monkey's skin, but Song Yanzhu, the park's deputy director of wild animal supervision, insisted they contained no lead or harmful material. "Monkeys have no habit of licking their skin, so they will not mistakenly eat the cream," Song said. "From their reaction after being dyed, they showed no excitement or extraordinarily abnormal emotion." Xu Dianju, president of the park's Wild Animal Hospital, said the park had also dyed horses in colored stripes to make them look like zebras.
