First it was floating dead pigs [4], then ducks [5], then black swans [6], then mass chicken exterminations [7], then fish [8], and now more pigs and also a brand new entrant to the Chinese animal apocalypse: dogs.
AP reports [9]that hundreds more pigs have been found dead in China - this time together with dozens of dogs. "A total of 410 pigs and 122 dogs were discovered in homes and at farms earlier this week in a village that comes under Yanshi city's jurisdiction in central Henan province, authorities said Wednesday. The city's propaganda office said that the deaths were being investigated but that they suspected they had to do with nearby chemical factories. The factories have been ordered to suspend production and help police with a criminal investigation into the incident, according to a report on a Henan provincial news website."
One would assume that something is responsible for these mass animal deaths, and one of these years, not the propaganda office, but someone actually accountable (so not CNN) will report what it is. Although we are not holding our breath, which if one were to live in Beijing, would not be a bad idea.
No poisonous gases have been found in tests on the air around the village and its drinking water has met quality standards, said the report, which the propaganda office confirmed.
Local authorities said the deaths have nothing to do with any epidemic or the H7N9 bird flu virus that has recently spread to humans.
Last month, more than 16,000 dead pigs were found in rivers that supply water to Shanghai. The dumping has not been explained, though police had been cracking down on the illegal sale of pork products made from dead, diseased pigs.
Perhaps the whole point of this animal apocalypse is to force local people to avoid any of the meats impacted and focus only on vegetables, thus preventing a surge in food prices at a time when virtually the entire world's hot money, not to mention the record credit injections by the PBOC itself, threaten to find their way into the food supply. That, however, would be too morbid to even consider: we will just wait for the Chinese ministry of truth to deny it first before we even consider it...
In other news, and deepening the mystery of the Chinese Bird Flu, we learn that " a number of people who have tested positive for a new strain of bird flu in China appear to have had no contact with poultry, adding to the mystery about a virus that has killed 17 people to date."
Chinese authorities have slaughtered thousands of birds and closed some live poultry markets to try to slow the rate of human infection, but many questions remain unsolved, including whether the H7N9 strain is being transmitted between people.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl confirmed that "there are people who have no history of contact with poultry", after a top Chinese scientist was quoted as saying this applied to about 40 percent of those infected.
"This is one of the puzzles still (to) be solved and therefore argues for a wide investigation net," Hartl said in emailed comments.
Hartl an international team of experts going to China soon would include in their investigation the possibility that the virus can be spread between people, although there was "no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission".
"It might be because of dust at the wet markets, it could be another animal source beside poultry, it could also be human-to-human transmission," he said by telephone.
So even more confusion about everything as the deaths mount, as well as increasing social tension and fear.
At the end of the day who wins in a situation like this? The government, of course, something the leaders of every undemocratic nation eagerly applaud.