A web user shared the footage and accused the workers of being 'brutal'
The video was widely shared and the public expressed mixed opinions
The Chinese breeding centre said the keepers were trying to control the cubs
But it admitted the workers had dealt with the situation 'too forcefully'
The animal carers have apologised and vowed to look after the bears better
A Chinese panda centre is under fire after three of their workers were accused of treating bear cubs poorly.
The accusation came after surveillance footage emerged on social media, which showed the workers dragging two bear cubs along the ground, pushing them away and throwing them in the air and on the floor.
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda, China's main panda breeding base, claimed its workers were trying to keep the cubs inside their enclosure and the workers were scratched and bit by the baby pandas during the process.
The footage emerged on July 12 after a social media user uploaded it onto her account on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.
The user, whose screen name is 'Yi Xi Lan', called the panda keepers 'rude'.
The self-proclaimed panda lover said it would be 'understandable' if keepers had to drag or throw cubs 'for a couple of times'.
'However in the live-streaming today, Rou Rou and Man Man (the cubs' nicknames) were repeatedly thrown onto the ground. I can't bear it.'
The video quickly became popular and caused a stir among Chinese web users.
Many people critisiced the way the keepers handled the animals and called their behaviour 'unacceptable' and 'brutal'.
However, some people challenged the authenticity of the footage and claimed the uploader had purposefully sped up the video.
There were also viewers saying pandas could be fierce sometimes and the way the keepers treated the cubs was understandable.
In an interview with Chengdu Business Daily, a spokesman from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda said the incident took place at around 6pm on July 12.
The base said the cubs in question were acting excitedly and had injured the workers. It said it was a pity that some people had condemned the keepers.
According to the base, three of their keepers were feeding four cubs, namely Meilan, Jilan, Yuanyue and Yuanman, that evening.
After the cubs finished eating, they were tasked to move Yuanman and Jilan into a separate enclosure to prepare for a medical checkup on the next day.
The spokesman said Yuanyue and Meilan wanted to follow their playmates and keepers had a hard time keeping them inside the room, and that was when the workers dragged the bears by force.
All of the workers were said to be injured while dealing with the cubs, which were 'highly excited'.
The base said the keepers did not have ill intentions, but their movements were 'too forceful and too quickly'.
The workers' behaviour was deemed 'inappropriate' by the base.
The three workers apologised to the public through Chengdu Business Daily.
The animals carers explained that the whole incident occurred in the space of 50 minutes, and the video had been edited down to just two minutes, which did not reflect the real situation.
They said they had formed a very close bond with the pandas after becoming their 'mummies and daddies'.
They admitted that they had acted too forcefully and vowed to take care of the animals more gently.
Further investigation is still being carried out by the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base.
Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base is the world's largest artificial breeding population of captive pandas.
According to its website, the base has 113 giant pandas.
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