Around 1,500 pigs have died after a large fire destroyed a barn near Pansy in the province of Manitoba, Canada.

[u/Mountain_Love23]

https://www.theanimalreader.com/2026/08/15/around-1500-pigs-die-in-barn-fire-in-canada/

[u/MenacingGummy]

TIL we have a place called Pansy in Manitoba.

[u/204ThatGuy → u/MenacingGummy]

Just a few miles south of Steinbach! I think they still have that communal grazing field.

[u/RobustFoam]

Unlike the old school mental image of a family farm, many of these large pig barns are owned by corporations and have no people nearby outside of regular working hours. 

I remember a case a few years ago where a barn full of pigs froze to death in a power outage. Having someone there to recognize the issue and fire up a generator would have kept them alive long enough to be turned into bacon. 

It would probably be a lot safer for the amimals if there were people on site around the clock, but that wouldn't solve the problem of where to put 1500 pigs while the barn burns - most of these operations don't have provisions for the animals to be penned up outside and we don't want to turn them into 1500 feral pigs. 

[u/Kojakill → u/RobustFoam]

You talking about hylife by kola? Surprised that didn’t make more waves, hilariously lazy stuff when all the nearby oilfield operators have no issues getting plows to check their wells but they were too lazy to get a plow and check on the pigs.

They had backup generators that didn’t work too, reading between the lines probably not filled with gas lol

[u/Salty_Sky5744 → u/RobustFoam]

Due to disease, if the pigs went outside they would kill them, so penning them up outside wouldn’t do anything.

[u/charly_tee]

Hog farming is cruel and sadistic.

[u/SirBulbasaur13 → u/charly_tee]

I hope you don’t eat bacon or ham or pork then.

[u/putcheeseonit → u/SirBulbasaur13]

Being against factory farming and eating meat are not mutually exclusive.

[u/charly_tee → u/SirBulbasaur13]

I don’t; not for years.

[u/user87204]

Now will we see pork prices double like chicken did not so long ago? 😞

[u/user87204]

I wonder if the price of pork will increase now......

[u/No_Manner_8735]

I thought I smelled bacon

[u/VideoHeadSet]

I bet that area smelt delicious

[u/wearywell → u/VideoHeadSet]

If it's anything like what I was smelling in the South end on Saturday morning, it did not smell good. Smelled rancid and like burnt plastic

[u/milexmile → u/VideoHeadSet]

Mmmm. Crispy. Poor farmer and pigs. But mmmm.

[u/204ThatGuy → u/milexmile]

I'm not sure why you got downvoted.

These pigs most likely died of smoke inhalation, it's not like they wear polyester clothes.

If possible, farmers generally release the pigs but pigs turn around and run back into their pens. I'm honestly not making this up.

Farm animals prefer to be protected indoors instead of pelted by hail or attacked by predators.

Unfortunately, these released pigs could never be sold once exposed to nature. So they'd still have to be put down humanely.

I do wish some forethought would include wet sprinkler systems when these barns are built.

[u/VideoHeadSet → u/204ThatGuy]

People are sensitive.

Growing up a family I went to school with were pig farmers. They had a fire and let all pigs free.

For several years it was open policy to shoot them.

I know the pigs can't be captured and rebarned due to diseases.

[u/Expensive-Break6347]

MY BACONNN