Seven of the animals were found dead in waters off the Caribbean country’s Exuma Cays island.
This had led to the Bahamian government imposing a ban on visitors feeding the creatures.
The owner of one of the pigs, Wayde Nixon, told The Nassau Guardian that the animals had been given “the wrong food”.
“We had them pigs there almost 30 years, and never has this happened before, but now we are going to have to regulate it,” he told the newspaper.
“Right now it’s blowing out of proportion with people, anybody, bringing food there, anybody doing what they [want to] do. We have people coming there giving the pigs beer, rum, riding on top of them, all kinds of stuff.”
The animals are a popular attraction for tourists visiting the Bahamas who travel to the destination to swim with team.
Bahamian officials have not yet confirmed the pigs’ cause of death, the Independent reports.
Kim Aranha, president of the Bahamas Humane Society animal group said: “It could just be a horrible accident where they ate something poisonous.
“It could be malicious but I don’t really see why someone would go out of their way to hurt those lovely animals.
“I know there are a lot of silly sailors that go and feed them alcohol to try and get them drunk but that’s not to mistake them with the tour operators based out of Nassau who have treated them with excellent care.”
Minister of agriculture and marine resources, V Alfred Gray said that due to the incident “people will be able to take photographs and see the pigs swim… but they will not be able to feed them things”.
Bahamas officials were quoted as saying that, while the deaths of the pigs would be bad for tourism and the local economy, it still expects that tourists will visit the destination to see the animals, the Independent reports.
