Swine fever? 62 piglets found in back of car slaughtered by Chinese authorities over lack of licence
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Agriculture officials seized and slaughtered more than 60 piglets at a highway police checkpoint in eastern China after the animals were found being illegally transported in the back of a car.
The two men in the vehicle, surnamed Li and Wu, did not have permits to raise or transport livestock and were stopped at a checkpoint with the 62 animals in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, last Thursday.
They had bought the piglets in Nantong in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, and planned to transport them back to their hometown in central Hunan province to sell them, the Yangtse Evening Post reported.
The pair drove at night to evade detection, but the overloaded car and the squeals of the piglets gave them away, according to the report.
On finding the piglets in the back, highway patrol police contacted Nanjing’s Centre for Animal Disease Control and Prevention.