Forcing a pig to bungee jump provoked a wave of online outrage on Sunday for a tourism site operator in Southwest China.

Four men carry a bound pig up the top of a tower on the video that went viral on Chinese social media on Saturday. 

They then dress the pig up in protective gear and push it off the 68-meter tower. 

In the clip, the pig struggles in the air as it flies up and down. 

In the last shot, the pig lies seemingly unconscious on the floor of the jumping platform. 

The pig was very "calm" after being winched back up, explained an anonymous cameraman for the Meixin Red Wine Town tourism site near Chongqing Municipality. 

"A pig bungee jumping is odd and attracts tourists and local residents to our site," he said.

The tourism publicity stunt was decried as animal abuse by many internet users. 

"It was miserable for the animal! It's a disgusting marketing idea to attract attention by abusing a pig!" posted a user on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

Another posted, "It's not funny at all. It just shows what human beings can do when they get bored." 

The tourist site operator should be thrown off the bungee tower to see how calm he kept, others suggested. 

A Red Wine Town publicity department staff member apologized on Sunday afternoon, saying the "ill-conceived activity aimed to pray for pork prices to take a dive." 

The resort would "strengthen regulation of its marketing activities" and provide "better services and a harmonious environment to improve tourists' experience," the staff member told the Beijing TV Weibo platform Btime without giving his name.

The pig was sent to the slaughterhouse, Btime said.

Animal performances should be stopped, or at least regulated, animal welfare activist Jiang Hong told the Global Times. 

"Forcing a pig to do this just for fun seriously violates our basic respect for life," Jiang said. 

"China so far has no animal welfare law," he noted.

Animal rights consciousness in China is "relatively weak, especially for non-companion animals," a freelancer for animal protection organizations told the Global Times. 

"The operator may not have done this out of an evil purpose. He just lacked the sense of treating an animal as a being with feelings, emotions and rights."

The angry online response suggested maybe awareness was growing among the Chinese public, she said.  

Pork prices in China rose from 30 yuan ($4.4) a kilo in March in 2019 to peak at 52 yuan in November.