Malaysia culls pigs after complaints
MALAYSIA - Malaysia began culling about 50,000 pigs in southern Malacca state following complaints about the stench and pollution the animals had caused, said officials. They strongly deny there has been a form of disease outbreak.
4 September 2007
2 minute read
"The operation has started and within 12 hours they have to slaughter close to 50,000 pigs," said a veterinary department official in the administrative capital of Putrajaya.
"I think many farms were operating without proper licences and local people were complaining about the smell and water pollution."
Malacca does not want to emerge as Malaysia's biggest pig producer, with a swine population estimated at 160,000, state chief minister Mohamad Ali Rustam said last month, according to media reports. The ethnic Chinese community in multi-racial Malaysia do relish pork, but the country's majority Muslim population frowns on consumption of this meat.
