Chinese theme park’s bungee-jumping pig stunt sparks anger on social media
- Public relations worker says it was ‘just a bit of entertainment’ to push 75kg animal from 70-metre platform to mark attraction’s opening
- Animal was going to be butchered for a Lunar New Year banquet anyway, he says
Chinese social media users have reacted angrily to a video that appeared online on Saturday of a live pig attached to a bungee rope being pushed off a 70-metre-high (230-foot) platform, supposedly to celebrate the opening of a theme park’s new attraction, local media reported.
In the footage, which was uploaded to Weibo – China’s Twitter-like service – the 75kg (165lb) animal is seen tied to a pole being carried by two men to the top of a metal stairway. Once at the top, the men truss the animal with the bungee ropes, tie a purple cape around its shoulders and push it over the edge.
As the animal plummets to the ground, people can be heard laughing and cheering.
But few people on social media saw the joke.
“I don’t see anything funny in it,” a person wrote on Weibo. “Why were there people laughing? Just because the animal can’t express fear doesn’t mean it is not afraid.”