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CHOQUING pictures show that pigs were burnt alive in pits as China grapples with the swine fever epidemic.
Shocking Claims: Pigs were still alive after being roasted in pits (Pic: ASIA WIRE)
*** WARNING: Below are images that some readers may find distressing ***
The horrific images of the dark threat of animals show the scale of the African swine fever epidemic that China is controlling.
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture yesterday confirmed a new outbreak of the virus in the central province of Hubei.
This brings to 14 the total number of provinces or municipalities affected by the disease since August.
Across the country, there have been 50 outbreaks of highly contagious viruses.
"Burying and burning these live animals is inhuman and can not kill the virus permanently"
PETA
The disease causes fever and bleeding to domestic pigs before dying in about a week.
Experts have suggested that the widespread disease is carried in pig feeds, which mainly include kitchen waste.
China has since banned feeding pigs with leftovers and other food waste and added stricter regulations to transport livestock.
However, farms in rural China still seem to struggle to contain the disease, which has killed hundreds of thousands of pigs.
More than 34,000 pigs were slaughtered last week to curb the spread of the disease.
Social media images showed a village littered with pork carcasses that were thrown at the edge of the road by their defenseless landlords.
Images sent to Asia Wire by People's Asian Bureau for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, show live pigs dumped in deep ditches to be buried alive.
In another case, they were also burned while they were still alive.
Keith Guo, PETA Asia media officer for China, said in a statement to Asia Wire: "Burried and burned alive! Absolutely inhuman and cruel!
"The recent outbreak of the swine flu virus is another disaster caused by industrial farms.
"Animals – so full of antibiotics that they become resistant to disease – make industrial farms a fertile breeding ground for new strains of dangerous bacteria and viruses.
"Burying and burning these live animals is inhuman and can not kill the virus permanently.
"The massacre will pollute the water, the land and threaten the citizens nearby.
"As long as industrial agriculture continues, it is likely that more and more of these deadly viruses will emerge and cause human casualties.
"PETA hopes that more and more people will choose not to support this type of cruelty and instead choose a plant-based diet for their health as well as for the sake of suffering animals on industrial farms."
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