Pushing pigs off a bridge: China tourism official under fire

The pigs in central China are pushed off a bridge to entertain visitors. Photo / Getty Images

A tourism official in central China came up with a novel way of entertaining visitors to Shiyan Lake, by creating a show featuring "flying" pigs.

Photos of pigs below: Warning - they may upset some readers

The animals were herded onto a bridge above the lake in Changsha. Identified by red numbers painted on their sides, the pigs were then driven off the bridge by a man holding a stick, and splashed into the water below.

In photos published on the Facebook page of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, groups of tourists stood on the side, taking photos of the spectacle.

The controversial event was defended by Shi Huang, who organised it.

"The piglets are carefully trained to perform this special stunt and they get well rewarded with food," he said.

"And once they get over their nerves they clearly enjoyed it.

"Anybody who says it is cruel is clearly not well informed that pigs like water."

But tourism officials reportedly received complaints.

Lok Chiang, writing online, said: "This was clearly animal abuse. It may well be the case that pigs like water, but not jumping into it from the top of a huge platform.

"That just isn't natural for any pig, there is no way you can claim they enjoy it."

And comments beneath the CCTV pictures were generally critical of the event.

"That's disgusting," said Geraldine Walker.

Eva Cohen described the event as "nauseating".

And Giselle Kuchirka wrote: "What is so entertaining about forcing scared animals into doing things they wouldn't normally do?"