Today in Adorable Mistakes: A man named Wang Kaiyu living in Yunnan, China, discovered the two puppies he’s been raising for the past two years are actually, uh, Asian black bears. And they’re considered a class II protected species. What led Kaiyu to discover the shocking truth was a poster for a wildlife protection exhibition — everything suddenly clicked. According to Shanghaiist, “after mulling it over, he decided he probably ought to send the bears away to the forest police in Maguan county in the hopes that they could be relocated to an appropriate habitat.”

While we’re bummed for Kaiyu, we’re happy to see the pups, I mean bears, in a safe, suitable environment. After all, most wild animals are not meant to be domesticated — let alone live in houses and treated like harmless puppies. In fact, the population of bears has dropped 49% over the last 30 years, according to Yahoo UK — so it’s vital that these cubs are protected and taken care of by professionals.

Exactly how Kaiyu ended up with bears for puppies? According to Shanghaiist, Kaiyu came across a man crossing the Vietnamese border with two “good looking” puppies. So he bought them, not thinking twice —and treated them like the prince and princess that they are. Kaiyu raised them like he would raise dogs — he bathed them, fed them, and brushed their fur. He told China Daily that both bears were, “very lively, not picky about food and were friendly with human beings.” However, after awhile, the cubs started, “behaving strangely much unlike dogs while they grew up,” occasionally hunting and eating a chicken on Kaiyu’s farm.

Currently, the bears are doing great at the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre of Yunnan, and hopefully they don’t miss their human dad too, too much.