https://au.news.yahoo.com/theme-parks-s ... 37686.html
WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: A theme park has sparked international outrage after it forced a pig dressed in a cape to bungee jump from a 68-metre tower.
Footage of the disturbing stunt at the resort in Chongqing, China, was widely condemned across Chinese social media.
The clip shows the pig tied to a metal pole being carried by two men to the top of a tower before being pushed off.
The animal can be heard squealing as it bounced up and down several times before becoming still. Laughter and cheers could be heard from the crowd.
The widespread criticism on Chinese sites such as Weibo reflects the growing importance of animal rights among the country’s people.
The furore has since prompted the theme park to issue an apology.
"We sincerely accept netizens' criticism and advice and apologise to the public," it said.
"We will improve [our] marketing of the tourist site to provide tourists with better services."
The publicity event – which organisers called the golden pig bungee jump – was held to celebrate the opening of the theme park's bungee attraction.
The pig was very "calm" as it was pulled back up, a cameraman working for the theme park told state news website Global Times.
"A pig bungee jumping is odd and attracts tourists and local residents to our site," he said.
Incident a ‘wake-up call’ for China
Animal protection organisation Peta condemned the incident, branding it "animal cruelty at its worst".
"Pigs experience pain and fear in the same ways that we do, and this disgusting PR stunt should be illegal,” Jason Baker, Peta senior vice-president of international campaigns, told the BBC.
"The Chinese public's angry response should be a wake-up call to China's policy-makers to implement animal protection laws immediately."
According to local reports the animal, which weighed 75kg, was sent to a slaughterhouse afterwards.
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