China hit by 'animal apocalypse' as mass die-offs continue in ultra-polluted nation

(NaturalNews) A mysterious wave of animal deaths that kicked off at the start of 2011 is picking back up in China, where tens of thousands of farm animals and wildlife have turned up dead in the communist country’s waterways in recent weeks. According to reports, the mass die-offs have affected mainly rivers and tributaries around the densely-populated Shanghai region, and the death count thus far includes tens of thousands of pigs, roughly 1,000 ducks, and at least five black swans.

According to a report issued by the Associated Press (AP) on March 22, a little more than a week after the first dead pigs were discovered, more than 10,000 pig carcasses had already been pulled out of the Huangpu River, which is a primary source of drinking water for the Shanghai region. Around the same time, more than 5,500 dead pigs were also removed from tributaries upstream in the provinces of Jiaxing and Zhejiang. (http://www.chron.com)

Following these discoveries,