(Manitoba Cooperator, Feb. 8, 2018)
Once again we hear the Manitoba Pork Council wants to ride roughshod over any restrictions whatsoever and build more hog barns. It’s an acknowledged fact that large numbers of animals confined in a building and electricity are not compatible and are an inevitable fire hazard.
These fires, which should not be labelled accidental, are totally the result of a calculated risk taken with impunity by all involved. It’s, unbelievably, just accepted. When the building goes up, the animals go with it.
To date, at least 90,000 animals have been lost in these fires, 10,000 in the last few months and still the pork council wants to build more.
They’ve had the approval of the Pallister government and have secured a reduction in the number of fire alarms and smoke detectors required. Not that they were ever there for the animals in the first place.
It’s hard to believe that this is happening in Canada with no public outcry. The only concern expressed now is the detrimental effect to the environment, a vital concern indeed.
However, what these animals are suffering is nothing less than an atrocity of monumental proportions and needs to be identified as such to the public at large, which surely will respond.
Or is common decency and humane compassion for animals dead in this province? It certainly is in the Pallister government and the Manitoba Pork Council.
Cynthia A. Stewart
Lake Audy, MB.
