Chinese sanitation workers cleaning up the dead pigs found along the Hengliaojing Creek.
More than 3,000 dead pigs were found floating in a major river that flows through Shanghai, China. According to Chinese news media outlets, fears have sprung out over the now-contaminated water across the area. Shanghai authorities are trying to find out who dumped all these pigs into the Huangpu River.
The initial group of dead pigs was found on last Thursday nearby a water treatment plant in the encompassing area.
This past Saturday, the Shanghai Songjiang District Environmental Protection Bureau reportedly sent a barge from Mishidu Dock in the Songjiang District to the Shuikou River in Pinghu, Zhejiang Province. When the barge reached its final destination, the bureau came upon several pig carcasses along the Pingshen Waterway, which runs from Pinghu to Shanghai.
The Global Times reported that the ear tags on the pigs link them to farms in the Jiaxing and Pinghu cities of the Zhejiang Province. Chen Yi, a veterinarian for the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, referred to the law governing the dumping of dead animals:
Farmers have to take the carcasses to their village or community disposal site or properly bury them with disinfectant.
Xu Rong, director of Shanghai Songjiang District Environmental Protection Bureau, spoke to the Global Times about this troubling case of public pollution and carcass dumping:
The number is expected to rise as there are still six barges that have not returned from collecting carcasses. We have to act quickly to remove them all for fear of causing water pollution. Samples of the dead pigs have been sent to the agricultural commission to determine the cause of their deaths. We’ll know the results in three days. So far, water quality has not been affected, but we have to remove the pigs as quickly as possible and can’t let their bodies rot in the water.
Even though the water quality is presumed to be safe, it has tested positive for porcine circovirus. Chinese health officials maintain that this virus is unable to spread to humans. A video report on this story can be seen above.
This news comes on the heels of another case of rampant pollution in China. Last December, a story surfaced about a 39-ton chemical spill from a fertilizer factory in the Shanxi Province. Local officials took five days to report this chemical spill to Chinese residents.