Chinese river choked with pig carcasses
A sanitation worker collects a dead pig from Shanghai's main waterway on March 11, 2013. Nearly 3,000 dead pigs have been found floating in Shanghai's main waterway, the Chinese city's government said on March 11, 2013, as residents expressed fears over possible contamination of drinking water. / PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images
BEIJING A surge in the dumping of dead pigs upstream from Shanghai — with more than 2,800 carcasses floating into the financial hub through Monday — has followed a police campaign to curb the illicit trade in sick pig parts.
The effort to keep infected pork off dinner tables may be fueling new health fears, as Shanghai residents and local media fret over the possibility of contamination to the city's water supply, though authorities say no contamination has been detected.
Authorities have been pulling out the swollen and rotting pigs, some with their internal organs visible, since Friday — and revolting images of the carcasses in news reports and online blogs have raised public ire against local officials.
"Well, since there supposedly is no problem in drinking this water, please forward this message, if you agree, to ask Shanghai's party secretary, mayor and water authority leaders if they will be the first ones to drink this meat soup?" lawyer Gan Yuanchun said on his verified microblog.
A dead pig floats on the river Monday, March 11, 2013 on the outskirts of Shanghai, China. A recent surge in the dumping of dead pigs upstream from Shanghai has followed a police campaign to curb the illicit trade in sick pig parts.
/ AP Photo/Eugene HoshikoOn Monday, Shanghai officials said the number of dumped adult and piglet carcasses retrieved had reached 2,813. The city government, citing monitoring authorities, said the drinking water quality has not been affected.
Shanghai's Agriculture Committee said authorities don't know what caused the pigs to die, but that they have detected a sometimes-fatal pig disease in at least one of the carcasses. The disease is associated with the porcine circovirus, which is widespread in pigs but doesn't affect humans or other livestock.
Shanghai's city government said initial investigations had found the dead pigs had come from Jiaxing city in Zhejiang province. It said it had not found any major epidemic.
Huang Beibei, a lifetime resident of Shanghai, was the first to expose the problem when he took photos of the carcasses and uploaded them onto his microblog on Thursday.
"This is the water we are drinking," Huang wrote. "What is the government doing to address this?"
His graphic photos apparently caught the attention of local reporters, who followed up.
Dead pigs are collected by sanitation workers from Shanghai's main waterway, March 11, 2013. More than 2,800 dead pigs have been found floating in Shanghai's main waterway, the Chinese city's government said on March 11, 2013.
/ PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty ImagesHuang said he's most concerned about water safety. "Though the government says the water is safe, at least I do not believe it — given the number of the pigs in the river. These pigs have died from disease," Huang said.
The dumping follows a crackdown on the illegal trade in contaminated pork.
In China, pigs that have died from disease should be either incinerated or buried, but some unscrupulous farmers and animal control officials have sold problematic carcasses to slaughterhouses. The pork harvested from such carcasses has ended up in markets. As a food safety problem, it has drawn attention from China's Ministry of Public Security, which has made it a priority to crack down on gangs that purchase dead or sick pigs and process them for illegal profits.
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A distorted utopia capitalism where they put profits over lives, where businesses can abuse, take advantage of, restrict consumer choice and freedom, or do whatever they want to consumers and enviroment. LOL.
unrestrained capitalism by a communist government.
hopefully all the extremists who post here will think about this....and the fact that the most efficient system lies somewhere between
1) Are you stupid? Like a "regulation" would prevent this? Get real people. Good God, going so far as to blame Bush for a problem in China?
2)People who dump bodies (pigs or otherwise) in rivers don't give a dam* about "regulations!"
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1) I'm afraid the stupid person is you. Regulations are rule of order created by administrative agencies of the Executive branch to enforce legislation enacted by Legislative branch.
Technically, regulations are not laws but have all the force of laws. They determine the outcome and penalty when the violator is being taken to court.
The traffic rules that you and everyone obeys while driving are regulations not laws. Get it? I dare you to run a red light in front of a cop. Go ahead, violate that regulation and see what happen.
2) Wrong! They dumped dead pigs in river due to lack of burial land, high cost of incinerate dead pigs, after the Chinese government cracking down on selling sick pig parts for human consumption, and most important due to weak environment protection and enforcement.
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In that case, these officials should have no problem using this water for drinking, bathing, washing and cooking for themselves and their families??
They really need to get a life!
Exaggeration is all you have.
This mess is obama's s**t sandwich and we are all going to have to take a bite!
At least for another four miserable years!