Dead Pig Count Soars to 6K in Shanghai River

That river happens to supply city with 22% of its water

By Mark Russell, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 13, 2013 8:06 AM CDT

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Dead Pig Count Soars to 6K in Shanghai River — 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 - 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... (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Shanghai's dead pig problem keeps getting worse. The count has jumped from 900 dead pigs four days ago to 5,913 as of yesterday, reports the AFP. And though the Huangpu River they've been fished from supplies the city with 22% of its water, officials continue to insist the water quality is "generally stable." Wrote a skeptical resident online, "Nearly 6,000 dead pigs and the water quality is still stable. That really is a miracle."

Most of the ire is being directed at Jiaxing, a major hog center located in the next province, but officials say nothing has been proven yet; they're using ear tags that were attached to the pigs to track down the animals' source. For their part, Jiaxing authorities are blaming a jump in pig deaths on the cold weather, reports the Washington Post. Residents' take is of the black comedy variety: Some are joking that the pigs offed themselves in order to escape China's polluted air. (More China stories.)

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