Pig Beach, an uninhabited island located in the Exuma cluster of islands in the Bahamas, is a popular travel destination that has been featured extensively on TV (most notably, on an episode of The Bachelor last year), thanks to the famous colony of wild yet friendly swimming pigs that live on the island and interact with tourists. No one is exactly sure how the pigs came to the island, although popular theories are that they were dropped off by pirates or possibly swam there following a shipwreck.
Sadly, earlier this month seven of the approximately 20-some pigs that reside on the island were found dead, and the cause of death is said to have been from tourists feeding them junk food and even alcohol. The owner and caretaker of the pigs, Wayde Nixon told the Nassau Guardian that his pigs had been given the “wrong food,” and said, “We have people coming there giving the pigs beer, rum, riding on top of them, all kind of stuff.”
Nixon doesn’t want to keep tourists from seeing the majestic animals, but the problem is that right now there is nothing stopping any moron with a boat from cruising right up to shore. Nixon is currently working with Bahamian authorities to regulate the island by putting up some kind of border that would allow tourists to watch and photograph the remaining 15 or so pigs, but not get close enough to feed them anything. In a nutshell, you can file this one under “this is why we can’t have nice things.”
(Via Express UK, Nassau Guardian)
