Life of Guangzhou - Pigs Stolen As Pork Prices Rise

Thieves have started targeting pigs with the continued rise in pork prices with one local farm suffering the theft of 88 pigs in the past five months.

Another 19 piglets worth about 100,000-yuan (US$13,200)were stolen Tuesday from a pig farm owned by the Shenzhen Agriculture and Farming Industrial Co., the Daily Sunshine said.

The company, which has reported the case to the police, is a leading farm produce supplier in the city. It owns 10 large-scale pig farms in nearby areas like Heyuan, Huizhou and Zhaoqing. The farm from which the pigs were stolen is in Huidong County, Huizhou.

"The walls of the piggery were destroyed. The thieves also made a 1.2-meter-wide hole in the surrounding walls," said a farm official surnamed Xu.

"They could have carried the piglets in plastic bags, where they loaded the animals onto a vehicle, leaving the bags behind," he said.

This was the fourth time that pigs have been stolen from the farm. The first case occurred April 19, when 19 adult pigs were stolen. The farm strengthened the walls, installed an alarm, and put more people on guard at night, but has not deterred the thieves.

Early July 7, six hooded men armed with knives and electric sticks tied up two security guards, unplugged the alarm system, and drove 29 pigs onto a truck waiting outside. The farm then built a 6-meter-high watch tower with the help of local police, with two workers patrolling at night.

This has forced the thieves to refocus their targets onto a piggery 100 meters away from the watch tower, where piglets are raised. On Aug. 13, 21 piglets were stolen.

A company official said fast rising pork prices had attracted the thieves. The price of a grown-up pig has nearly doubled from 800 yuan per head before the Spring Festival to 1,500 yuan now. "We had never lost one pig before pork prices rose," he said.

Apart from the Huidong pig farm, another of the company's farms in Zhaoqing has also had pigs stolen since the Spring Festival this year.

(Li Dan)