Authorities in the Bahamas are investigating the deaths of more than a half-dozen of the island nation's famous swimming pigs.
The pigs, which are a big tourist draw on the uninhabited island of Big Major Cay in Exuma, were reportedly killed by visitors last weekend when the animals were given "the wrong food," one of the pigs' owners, Wayde Nixon, told The Nassau Guardian.
About 15 of the pigs survived and have been checked over by a vet. Nixon said the incident won't stop tourists from coming to the island.
“The other remaining pigs are alive and healthy and out on the beach and going,” he said.
The government announced that it will begin regulating the pigs and that no feeding will be allowed, following this incident.
“We have people coming there giving the pigs beer, rum, riding on top of them, all kind of stuff,” Nixon said.
After 30 years on the island, the swimming pigs’ popularity has exploded, and Nixon thinks the increase in unregulated feeding of the animals has become a problem.
The government has said part of the new plan to protect the pigs involves creating a new boundary between the surviving pigs and tourists.
