Hero porker survives 36 days in China quake rubble

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — A pig that survived for 36 days buried beneath rubble in quake-hit southwest China on a diet of charcoal has been hailed as a symbol of the will to stay alive, state press reported Monday.

The pig, who weighed nearly 150 kilograms (330 pounds) at the time of the magnitude-8.0 earthquake on May 12, had lost two thirds of its weight when found last week, the Chongqing Evening Post said.

"It didn't look like a pig at all when it was saved. It was as thin as a goat!" a witness told Xinhua news agency.

According to the report in the Chongqing Evening Post, the pig survived on water and a bag of charcoal that had been buried with the one-year-old in the ruins of Pengzhou city, Sichuan province.

Although charcoal has no nutritional value, it...