Pictures and video circulating online show an eight-ton whale being butchered outside a Jiangxi Province company's office, with the local authorities explaining it was meant to be used "to feed animals," The Beijing Youth Daily reported Saturday.
A video posted online Friday shows workers sawing a whale apart outside the offices of the Xinyu-based Risun Solar Energy Technology Corporation.
"It smells really bad. I have no idea why the company has it moved here," said a witness.
The whale was apparently a personal gift from a director of a Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang Province-based company to a director of Risun.
The Jiangxi Bureau of Fishery Administration started looking into the case on Thursday with the assistance of the local Xinyu agriculture authorities.
"The whale was transported from Zhejiang Province. The trip cost 4,000 yuan ($578)" one investi-gating official told the media, explaining the company planned to use the whale to feed animals "such as dogs."
It is still unclear if anything illegal took place, and the probe may need help from the Zhejiang authorities.
All whales are second class national-level protected animals, aside from two species which are first-class protected.
"According to the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife, approval from administrations in charge of wildlife is needed when an animal of this level is sold, pur-chased or used," said Han Xiao, a lawyer at Beijing Kangda Law Firm.
"If such permission is lacking in this case, it will be illegal." said Han.
It is unclear what has happened to the whale since the investigation began, or why Risun wanted to feed dogs.
