There’s an old saying: “if you lie with dogs, expect to get fleas.”  A zoo in central China is has turned that truism on its ear.

They’re being accused of passing off dogs as big cats and other zoo animals.

There are often stand-ins who perform for missing stars on Broadway. And there are seat-fillers who help audiences look full for the TV cameras at awards shows.

But a stand-in at a zoo?

State media in China say a zoo in a city in the central part of the country tried to pass off a Tibetan mastiff as a lion. The Beijing Youth Daily says the sign at the enclosure said there was a lion in the den – but it was a big-maned dog, instead. The tip-off – the “lion” was barking like, you know, a dog.

The newspaper says the zoo also had another dog in its wolf cage and foxes in the leopard enclosure. The paper quotes the zoo manager as denying any deception. The lion, the manager says, had been lent out to breed. And the dog? The zoo says it belonged to the friend of a keeper who was away on business and needed a place to keep his pet.