I raised a 250lb pet mastiff for two years – then realized it wasn’t a dog

A FAMILY raised their beloved pet for two years, believing it was a Tibetan mastiff the entire time – but they have since discovered it was not even a dog.

The pet kept growing, eventually weighing over 250 pounds, and it even began walking on its hind legs.

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A woman named Su Yun brought the animal to her home in Yunnan, a Chinese village, while on vacation in 2016.

The adorable puppy had a big appetite, going through a “box of fruits and two buckets of noodles” each day, The Independent reported.

Soon, Yun started to question if her dog was actually a Tibetan Mastiff, which can grow up to 71 inches tall and weigh up to 180 pounds.

“The more he grew, the more like a bear he looked,” Yun told Chinese Media. “I am a little scared of bears.”

Growing concerned, Yun called officials to inspect her dog, only to find out that her pet wasn’t a member of the canine family at all.

It turns out Yun had been raising an endangered Asiatic black bear.

The animal is highly profitable on the black market – easily fetching thousands of dollars in illegal sales.

Asiatic black bears have been used in Asian traditional medicine and foods.

Ursodeoxycholic acid, a chemical found in the animal’s bile, has been used to treat medical issues such as liver disease in Chinese traditional medicine.

Despite the bear being kept as a domestic pet with Yun’s family, the animal was taken into care at the Yunnan Wildlife Rescue Center.

According to The Independent, staff members were so afraid of the animal that they opted to sedate it before transporting it.

Officials reported that the bear is living a healthy life in its new home.

And Yun’s family isn’t the first one to make this kind of mistake, according to reports.

Local media reported that a man, also from Yunnan province, raised a bear after finding it alone in the forest and believed that it was a stray dog.

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