This is not meant to indicate that the creators of the figurative creature "tried to draw a lion and ended up with a dog" (as the proverb goes in Chinese), but simply shows that lions were not native to these countries, and so the unfamiliar animal had to be based on a familiar one.
以犬稱獅，並非畫獅不成反類犬，而是未曾見過，用熟悉的動物來形容。這也說明瞭這些國度和中國一樣不產獅子。