THEY thought they’d wing it with this bizarre new tourism campaign in China, but instead they flew straight into controversy.
Tourism officials from Bao Tianman Scenic Spot in Nanzhao County, Henan Province, wanted to highlight the beauty of the area, which is famous for its butterflies, in a more dramatic way.
So they decided to create a “butterfly fairy”, by allegedly pinning several dozen live butterflies onto a model’s dress for a photo opportunity.
It was part of the first official Bao Tianman Scenic Spot Butterfly Festival.
But unfortunately, the intended fairytale-like scene became more like a nightmare as children watched in horror as the butterflies tried to fly away, without success.
“The butterflies seem to be still alive, and many were beating the wings obviously trying to fly away from the dress but they couldn’t because they had steel pins through their bodies pinning them to the fabric,” onlooker Xiu Shih, 37, told the Daily Mail .
“It was really shocking and I saw some children crying and their parents taking them away. This was supposed to be a celebration of the beauty of the butterfly and of the natural beauty of the region. The whole thing just left me speechless.”
Official spokesman Ning Wang said it wasn’t cruel: ‘We wanted the Festival to encourage people’s love of insects and the natural world and to encourage them to protect our fellow creatures instead of catching and killing them so relentlessly.”