I just don't understand what is wrong with some people

[Minimor]

This story first made the news last night but there weren't many details. Tonight they gave more information, and it makes me sick. 500 hogs were already dead and another 150 or 160 were in such bad shape they had to be destroyed.

The hogs weren't getting feed or water and the barn ventilation system wasn't working. Thing is, the person caring for the hogs had the feed for them--when the dead hogs were discovered, the bins were full of feed. WHY would someone just stop feeding & watering animals that way, when the feed was available? If he didn't want to do the work any more, why wouldn't he let the owners of the hogs know, so that other arrangements could be made??My link

So far, according to the TV news tonight, no charges have been laid. Surely, though, the guy will be charged--the article says the penalty for this kind of abuse ranges from $5000 to 6 months in jail. If you ask me (and of course no one does!!) $5000 AND 6 months in jail wouldn't be nearly enough. For that many starving and dead animals he should get that penalty several times over!

I just don't understand how people can do this sort of thing to animals.

 

[ohmt]

That just makes me sick. Those poor animals. There isn't any creature on earth that would deserve to die like that. Whomever was responsible should have the 5000 fine and 6 months in jail times however many animals he was responsible for torturing and killing

 

[Sue_C.]

such a terrible thing...to think of all those animals suffereing in silence.

With the feed being there, the thing that came to mind was perhaps the owner had been very sick and unable to get to them, or get help, or perhaps even died and nobody knew of it? With that "no charges have been laid" part...it makes me wonder if I was right?

Hope to hear more soon.

 

[Minimor]

I don't think anyone died--I doubt they were even unwell. According to all local news reports, the hogs were owned by a nearby Hutterite colony and were boarded at this barn owned by an area farmer--that farmer was the one caring for the hogs, with the Hutterites providing the feed. A neighbor had spoken to the farmer and said he thinks there is a problem with the hog barn. The farmer apparently did nothing. I'm not sure who the neighbor talked to then--the Hutterites went to check when the farmer didn't place an order for more feed, and at that point the property owner denied them access to the barn. They contacted the RCMP who visited the farm & gained access to the barn under Manitoba's Animal Care Act. That is when the dead hogs were found, though it sounds like neighbors could smell the problem prior to that. On the television news last night a reporter stationed at the end of the driveway asked the driver of a pickup truck that turned in at the farm if he was the owner of the property. He said yes, and she then asked him if he could explain something of what went on here. He put a hand up to shield his face & drove away into the yard.

In a new twist, that barn--fortunately empty because the surviving hogs have been moved to a different barn--went up in flames early this morning. Here is the link to a newspaper article--I am not sure if the link will work, because you have to be a signed up member of the website to read the articles, but I'll post the link in case it will work:

Fire destroys empty barn

If the link doesn't work, this is what the article says:

Contentious hog barn destroyed in blaze

By: Britt Harvey

Fire officials and the RCMP investigate a fire that destroyed a hog barn overnight.

NOTRE DAME DE LOURDES – A barn at a hog operation under investigation for the possibility of animal cruelty was destroyed by fire early this morning.

The blaze began around 1:15 a.m. at the farm where approximately 2,000 hogs, many of them dead and decomposing, were discovered by Manitou RCMP officers last week.

Fire chief Stefan Dupasquier was first on the scene and said the building was already engulfed in flames. "It tooks us from around 1:30 to 6 a.m. to put it out," he said.

Dupasquier said the cause of the blaze was still under investigation, but appears suspicious.

More than 30 area firefighters worked to extinguish the fire.

Last Friday morning, the RCMP were contacted by a representative from an area Hutterite colony who stated they were denied access to the hogs they owned and boarded at a local farm in the Rural Municipality of Lorne.

The RCMP and members of the colonly entered the barn and found the neglected animals, many of them already dead. That investigation is still being handled by Manitoba Agriculture and the provincial veterinarian's office, with assistance from the RCMP.

 

[Katiean]

I think I would have a hard time going into a hog barn with healthy hogs in it let alone dead and dying hogs. When the guy was being paid to take care of the hogs, why would he not do his job? Someone like that should not be able to owner care for livestock or any other animals ever again.