12 jailed for selling meat from sick pigs
Print Edition
Twelve people involved in the sale of meat from sick pigs have been jailed by the Higher People’s Court in southeast China’s Fujian Province.
The pork, complete with quarantine and inspection stamps, made its way to food companies and restaurants after officials were bribed, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Sentences ranged from 30 months to 16 years, Xinhua said, without revealing individual punishments.
A group led by Lin Shen and Lai Jianhua illegally purchased sick and dead pigs selling the meat for 12.43 million yuan (US$2 million) after processing, the court heard.
Another led by Zhang Zhiqiang made 43 million yuan by renting licensed slaughter houses to butcher such pigs.
Under Chinese law, pigs which have died as the result of disease can’t be sold and must be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
Farmers in Longyan, a major pig breeding base in the province, need to pay 200 yuan to properly dispose of such pigs but are only eligible for a government subsidy of 80 yuan.
As a result, many prefer to sell their dead pigs to illegal dealers or throw them into nearby rivers.
Lin, Lai and Zhang sold the illegal pork meat in other cities in Fujian and in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hunan and Guangdong.
Court officials said preventing the illegal sale of dead pigs was difficult as the farmers involved and the companies who bought the pork from criminal gangs were usually not punished.
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