The famous Chinese pig Zhu Jianqiang, who survived 36 days under rubble after the Wenchuan earthquake, has died at the age of 14 on Wednesday.
The 7.9-magnitude earthquake in southwestern Sichuan province on May 12 in 2008, killed nearly 90,000 people.
Zhu was pulled out alive on June 17 and was immediately praised for his inspiring will to survive. He had survived on a bag of charcoal and rainwater.
Witnesses said the young Zhu had lost so much weight when he was pulled from the rubble that he looked more like a goat.
His weight was reduced from 150 kg to 50 kg, and his front legs were injured from the earthquake, which made it difficult for him to walk.
A local museum near the city of Chengdu bought him and kept him as a tourist attraction while he lived out his days.
He died of “old age and exhaustion”, the museum said on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform.
The Weibo hashtag “Strong Pig died” had drawn nearly 300 million views by Thursday. Weibo users hailed him as “the most famous pig in history”.
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