China pork crisis: ‘model slaughterhouse’ accused of processing dead and diseased pigs
- Television programme goes undercover and alleges that some pigs butchered and cleared for sale were dead, or were supposed to be destroyed
- Some pork allegedly processed illegally was found being transported for sale, including at a wet market in Guangzhou
Police and market regulators in Foshan, Guangdong province, stormed Nanhai Heyi Slaughterhouse on Sunday to investigate allegations made in a programme broadcast on Saturday by Guangdong Radio and Television.
The slaughterhouse – which in September had been referred to as an example enterprise for pig slaughter by the province’s agriculture department – was ordered to close and members of staff were taken away by police.
An inspection of all pig slaughterhouses in the Nanhai district had also been ordered, the broadcaster reported.
Its undercover reporter claimed to have been approached at the slaughterhouse by a pig dealer who offered to sell him two dead pigs for 300 yuan (US$43) each. He said he then witnessed another dead pig being processed and butchered, before being marked as having been inspected and cleared for sale, and transported out of the slaughterhouse.
During another visit, according to the programme, a man was seen paying 1,000 yuan and 500 yuan for two dead pigs. When the man asked for the dead pigs to be processed by the slaughterhouse, he was initially refused permission, only for the staff to agree to it after he paid them a bribe of at least 100 yuan, the report stated.