The Taranto contra pandas kerfuffle continues.

Where's Paul Tsongas When You Need Him?

The Washington Post offers another argument against pandas:
The giant panda is the rock star of the captive-animal world, the biggest draw there is, and only four U.S. zoos have them, including Washington's National Zoo. But officials at the animal parks say they spend millions of dollars more than they take in on the rare bear, whose appeal has not boosted visitor numbers and souvenir sales as much as hoped. . . .
The expense of keeping pandas is high: $1 million a year to China to borrow the animals, extensive outlays for research required by the federal import permit, construction expenses for lavish new exhibits and spending on basic care.

The four zoos, Washington, Atlanta, Memphis and San Diego, collectively spent $33 million more on pandas from 2000 to 2003 than they received in revenue from exhibiting them, according to figures compiled by Zoo Atlanta chief executive Dennis W. Kelly. Corporate and individual donations reduced the loss to $4 million, he said.

The New York Times' John Tierney has joined our antipanda crusade:
The polar bear has become the new poster animal for environmentalists, and I can understand why. When it comes to "charismatic megafauna"--the term used by marketing experts at conservation groups--the bear is a giant improvement over the giant panda.

The rotund panda may be cuddlier, but it is really more of a poster animal for gluttony and sloth. In the wild, it eats 12 hours a day and spends the rest of the time sleeping or hiding. In captivity, it can barely stir itself even to mate--Mei Xiang had to be artificially inseminated to produce her new cub at the National Zoo.

Yes, Mei Xiang can draw crowds to the zoo, but does her lolling inspire much zeal for preserving the species? The message she sends is, "I don't care, so why should you?"

How things might have been different if Paul Tsongas had won the White House! The former Massachusetts senator, who died in 1997, ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992 and was the only presidential candidate ever to run on an antipanda platform. (With his New England accent, it sounded like he was saying "pander bears.") Alas, Tsongas lost to Bill Clinton, who like the panda turned out to be a symbol of gluttony and nonprocreative sexual gratification.