A video went viral on social media in January, as the social network Weibo published the footage of a pig essentially being forced to bungee jump. The scene takes place in an amusement park in Chongqing, China, on the day of its inauguration.
Discover our latest podcast
The images show a live pig attached by his hind legs to a rope and pushed off a platform, 230 feet high. In the video, you can hear the pig screaming, and the laughter and applause of the audience watching the scene.
According to 'the Independent', the park's owner said this incident was supposed to celebrate the end of the Chinese Year of the pig and the start of the Chinese New Year of the Rat, that started back in January.
A spokesperson revealed that the poor animal ended up being slaughtered after the jump and that the trauma that the pig might have been through was 'just a little bit of fun'. Let it be recalled that animal cruelty is still not prohibited in China, but awareness and consciousness are being raised among the younger generations.
The amusement park has since apologised in a statement:
'We sincerely accept netizens’ criticism and advice and apologised to the public. We will improve [our] marketing of the tourist site, to provide tourists with better services.'
After all the negative comments on social media came rolling in, Jason Baker, PETA Asia's Vice President of International Campaigns, told the Independent:
This is cruelty to animals at its worst. A bungee jump is a scary experience even for consenting humans – just imagine the outright terror of being forcibly strung up by your legs and thrown from a high platform. That's the treatment that this pig received, all for a cheap laugh. Pigs experience pain and fear, just as we do, and this kind of disgusting PR stunt should be illegal.
''The theme park deserves every shred of the backlash it's receiving online, and the Chinese public's angry response should be a wake-up call to China's policymakers that they must implement animal protection laws immediately,' he added.
We sure hope they've learned their lesson.
