The fake history of BoBo | Flora memorial wrongly attributes date of bear rescue

Bobo’s memorial and (inlet) a clipping of Va Kio Daily from December 20 ,1986, courtesy MPD

The plaque near the statue of Bobo the Asian black bear wrongly reads that it was rescued “in the summer of 1984.”

A news clipping of Va Kio Daily’s edition from December 20, 1986, states that the bear cub was rescued “yesterday” (December 19, 1986), which confirms the reports published yesterday by both Macau Daily Times and Macau Post Daily raising suspicions about the date inscribed on the stone.

“Yesterday morning, a bear cub was taken to Municipal Kennels from a restaurant [and] the authority will consider moving it to an enclosure in Flora Garden for [quarantine]. The bear was smuggled to Macau without quarantine document,” reads the Va Kio article, which added that, “someone is said to have paid about 10,000 [patacas] to buy the bear to be slaughtered for a meal.”

The 1986 article quotes “Municipal Veterinarian Dr Sacco [who said] wild animals such as snakes, civets, pangolins etc. [are] imported into Macau every day by the Border Gate, and the quarantine documents issued by China are required. According to the Municipal Law, cats and dogs are not allowed to be killed, but there is still no legislation on wild animals.”

Yesterday, the Times reported that the bear cub was found in the autumn of 1986 in a cage outside a restaurant in Rua da Felicidade by journalists, namely, the late TDM anchor José Alberto de Sousa who first reported the case to Leal Senado in the course of his investigation, and Harald Bruning.

These reports also indicate that BoBo’s age may be less than 35 years old when he died on Tuesday morning, as reported by the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM).

Meanwhile, another controversy arose around the bear’s legacy. IACM’s plan to embalm BoBo the bear, with complaints reaching the Legislative Assembly.