Pig Lauded As Hero, Amazes Humans

Zhu Jianqiang | Photo: Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

2008.  Out of the rubble of a 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province came a hero.  A badly injured, 110-pound pig named Zhu Jianqiang- which means, Strong-Willed Pig. 

The pig was apparently trapped in a collapsed farm shed and survived under the rubble for 36 days, eating nothing but charcoal and rainwater.  The Chinese state media even celebrated the pig as the country’s most inspirational animal in 2008.  His picture was everywhere, he was famous.  He was even given his own 10-year life insurance policy.  Then the farmers who owned the pig sold him to a museum, to be placed on exhibit.

From The Lede:

He was voted China’s most inspirational animal in a poll on Red Net, an online forum and news site, according to China Daily.  China Daily said this was the second straight victory for a pig: Last year’s winner was a sow that fought off a butcher trying to slaughter its “husband.”

[But] One of his handlers, quoted by the newspaper, said the pig had become cranky, fat and lazy in his celebrity, unwilling even to walk around his pen or raise its snout for pictures.  The pig, the handler said, “has developed a temper that many of its fans may not want to see.”

Vegan thought:  The pig was lauded a hero because the pig did what he had to do in order to survive. The pig wanted to live. Why are we amazed that these animals want a life beyond servitude to us?

Anyway, so how do the Chinese treat their hero’s?  At the equivalent of sixty human years of age, Zhu was cloned to produce six piglets.

From BBC News:

“The wonderful pig surprised us again,” Du Yutao, the head of the cloning project, told the Sunday Morning Post.

The newspaper says the piglets bear a striking resemblance to their dad – with a birthmark between their eyes.  They are likely to be paired off and sent to a museum and a genetic institute.

Let’s recap.  The Chinese find it inspirational that a pig wanted to live (and not die) so they made him a hero- after: he’s sold, renamed, and put to work in an exhibit where he has displayed stress and anger.  Then, this “wonderful pig” was cloned [how many times before it took?] with no chance of seeing his offspring as they’re being shipped out to a museum or genetic institute.

Makes you wonder how they treat animals they don’t like.