Photo: Courtesy of Culture, Radio, Film, TV, Press and Publication of Baoxing county

 
Two pigs miraculously survived for 45 days under rubble after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that shook Ya’an, Sichuan Province on April 20 destroyed their sty, Chengdu Economic Daily reported.

The two pigs weighed only 55 pounds when they were rescued in Xueshan village, Baoxing county on June 4, a drop of over 30 pounds.

According to their owner, Yang Mingqun, who had originally kept four pigs in the sty, the surviving pair lasted for six weeks with only clay to eat and rainwater to drink. 

“They were too weak to stand when we dragged them out of the collapsed sty," Li Deming, one of the villagers involved in the rescue, told the paper.

Li explained he and his rescue team had come to the village to clear away rubble from the former village committee office and Yang’s sty on the morning of June 4. At midday, the team found two pigs that had died in the quake.

Then, one villager noticed a small concrete slab was moving. Upon removing the slab, they were all surprised to see a pig’s head stick out and shake of dust.

At first they tried to lure it out with food, but it was too weak so the team had to pull it out, which according to Li is when they found the second pig. 

“They didn’t look like pigs at all, and had to rest for about five minutes before standing up to eat", according to Li.

A grateful Yang explained that although he didn’t ask the team to excavate, he had always maintained hope that maybe one of his pigs was still alive in there.