The Times, August 22, 2017
What on earth is this intro about? How many teddy bears have you seen with black and white faces? There is no relevance to the story at all.
This is how I would start it:
A fashion for keeping Far Eastern wild dogs as pets could endanger native wildlife, conservationists are warning.
Raccoon dogs have been popularised on social media and are being sold to buyers who are attracted by their black and white faces and fluffy appearance. However they are notoriously hard to domesticate and an unknown number have been dumped in the wild.
Incidentally, it is ‘raccoon dog’, not ‘racoon dog’. Not a great effort.