fayfreethinkers.com

Multicolored Panda Poop Paper Yields Big Profits for Thai Keepers
11-22-2006

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- There's the Panda Express fast-food chain. Jing Jing, a mascot for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The forthcoming animated movie, Kung Fu Panda. Even a Mexican rock band named after the cuddly bear.

Not to be outdone, Thailand has come up with yet another, seemingly unlikely way to capitalize on this globally loved, bamboo-munching animal _ panda poop.

A t-shirt now falsified.

When keepers of the country's panda couple _ Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui _ got tired of disposing the 55 pounds of feces daily produced by the duo, Prasertsak Buntragulpoontawee came up with the idea of turning it all into notebooks, fans, bookmarks and key chains.

"At first the Chinese were very skeptical," says the head of Chiang Mai Zoo's panda unit, referring to the proprietary attitude China takes toward its iconic animal.

But the multicolored paper products have proved hot selling-items at the zoo, with the 300,000 baht (US $8,200) earned to date helping balance the accounts of panda keeping.

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A couple of decades back the Brooklyn Zoo was having great difficulties - NYC had enough of a garbage problem without dealing with exotic excrement - so some bright soul came up with "Zoo-Do" - a potting soil (pooting soil?) made from the composted fecal matter gathered daily from the zoo. It worked, still works, like a charm. Instead of being a very expensive waste to dispose of, it became a revenue-generating resource. My mother used to say, "Take the problems away from maintenance and hand them over to sales." She was right.