The “world’s saddest polar bear” is about to learn what it means to be happy once again.
Pizza is the main attraction in Guangzhou, China at the indoor zoo of Grandview Shopping Mall. Earlier this year, Pizza’s story went viral, showing his distressing living quarters and his declining mental state.
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The video quickly made its way around the internet with many people calling for a renovation of the bear’s living conditions for the sake of his mental health.
“Pizza repeatedly thumped his paws against a metal door and threw ice lumps about with his mouth before falling asleep in a dark corner,” reported Yahoo.
The owners of the Grandview Shopping Mall eventually caved and agreed to change the situation after a petition from Animals Asia received over a million signatures. The owners shared on social media that the 3-year-old bear will return to an ocean park where his parents currently live.
However, there are a few reports that the move may only be temporary and Pizza will return once the zoo renovates his living space. Regardless of the renovation, many people are calling out the zoo and asking for a permanent relocation.
“Pizza the polar bear has endured a life of deprivation and suffering in his small, artificial glass-fronted room at the shopping mall, so the news that he’s getting out at last makes me very happy and relieved for him,” explained Dr. Peter Li of Humane Society International. “But we implore the mall to make this a permanent move for Pizza and to not condemn him to return. At last he will feel the sun on his fur, sniff fresh air and see the sky above him in the company of his mum and dad.”
He continued, “No amount of renovation could ever make a shopping mall a suitable place for this animal, and to send him back now would be cruel and heartless.”
