I really enjoy browsing these old student newspapers.

Humane Society asked to leave Hanover fair over papier mâché pig, human-sized cage

WHS says display was intended to spark conversation around gestation crates or 'sow stalls'

~Lauren Scott · CBC News · Posted: Aug 17, 2025 5:14 PM EDT | Last Updated: August 17~

Charlotte the papier mâché pig has been a part of the Winnipeg Humane Society's gestation crate display for decades, according to WHS animal advocacy lawyer Krista Boryskavich. (Winnipeg Humane Society)

Winnipeg Humane Society staff say they're disappointed that the organization was asked to leave the Hanover Ag Fair in Grunthal, Man., on Saturday, after setting up an animal welfare display that featured a papier mâché pig and a human-sized cage at the event on Saturday.

The humane society said the display was intended to raise awareness around gestation crates or "sow stalls" — metal, cage-like enclosures that are about two metres long and half a metre wide.

Krista Boryskavich, an animal advocacy lawyer with the Winnipeg Humane Society, says gestation crates are "barely larger than the animal itself," leaving little room for the animal to turn around.

The human-sized crate staff brought to the fair was intended to simulate that experience and spark conversation, she said.

"Pigs are very intelligent creatures, so this is a mental welfare issue, as well as a physical welfare issue," she said.

The humane society was asked to leave the fair about three and a half hours after setting up.

"We were promoting dialogue on some very important animal welfare issues and we're a little unsure as to why that was not acceptable," Boryskavich said.

"The dialogue is important and should have been allowed to continue."

The Hanover Ag Society, which runs the annual summer fair, said it gave vendor space to the humane society "under the assumption they would be promoting their pet adoption programs," in a statement posted to social media.

Boryskavich said the organization's vendor application did not mention adoptions.

The humane society has been bringing Charlotte the papier mâché pig and her cage to events across Manitoba for decades, Boryskavich said. As far as she's aware, this is the first time they've been asked to leave.

Earlier this summer, Charlotte went to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and the Manitoba Sunflower Festival in Altona, Man. She has a few more market events planned until the end of August.

"We've had this crate in existence for decades now and the issue has not disappeared, these crates have not gone away," Boryskavich said.

According to the National Farmed Animal Care Council, gestation crates were supposed to be phased out by July 1, 2024, in favour of group pens. That deadline has been pushed back to 2029.

About half of Manitoba's pork producers still use gestation crates, Boryskavich said.

She said the humane society brought the display to Hanover because it was a good opportunity to meet directly with producers.

"We're not out to create controversy, but we do want to have that discussion and talk about ways that we can improve animal welfare in a meaningful way," Boryskavich said.

"This is not an urban-rural divide on values or issues. I think that compassion and empathy exists no matter whether you live in Winnipeg or whether you live in rural Manitoba," she said.

CBC News reached out to the Hanover Agricultural Fair but did not receive a response before publication.

Toward Indigenous Veganism: Kinship, Personhood, and the Ethics of Harm

Veganism is often caricatured as a recent, Western movement, disconnected from Indigenous realities and at odds with cultural survival. Yet a serious examination of Indigenous philosophies—especially those emphasizing kinship, reciprocity, and the personhood of animals—reveals that Indigenous veganism is not only possible but, for some, a natural extension of the most profound Indigenous values. This essay argues that Indigenous veganism offers a way to honor both animal and human persons, to reckon honestly with harm, and to answer the call for moral consistency in the wake of colonial disruption.

Personhood and the Ethics of Kinship

Many Indigenous worldviews recognize non-human animals, plants, and even landscapes as persons—beings with agency, interests, and an ability to enter into relationships. In these traditions, the world is a web of kinship, not a hierarchy of value. If this recognition is more than metaphor, then the moral imperative to avoid harming other persons extends beyond the human. To kill and consume an animal is, by this light, not categorically different from doing so to a human; both acts are a rupture in the web of kinship.

The usual distinction made between eating animals and eating humans is not rooted in a difference of vulnerability or moral worth, but rather in custom, taboo, and role assignment. Yet these boundaries, when examined critically, do not withstand moral scrutiny: if personhood is the ground of kinship and respect, then killing a person—human or otherwise—for food, pleasure, or ritual is an act of exploitation. To maintain that killing a non-human animal can be justified by ritual or gratitude, while killing a human cannot, is to reveal an unexamined speciesism within the relational framework itself.

Tradition, Colonialism, and Moral Responsibility

The legacy of colonialism in Indigenous communities is inseparable from food systems. Forced displacement, criminalization of traditional foods, and environmental devastation have produced real barriers to plant-based diets. For many, reclaiming hunting and fishing is a means of cultural resurgence and survival. However, tradition cannot serve as an absolute shield against ethical evolution. Human societies have always adapted to new moral insights—whether in rejecting patriarchy, ending slavery, or expanding the circle of concern to new groups.

Veganism is not a practice of perfection, but an ethic of minimizing harm where “practicable and practical.” The presence of Indigenous vegans demonstrates that, at least for some, it is feasible to align food choices with the value of respecting all persons. To claim that it is universally impossible, or that abstention from animal use is always a colonial imposition, erases the agency of those Indigenous individuals who, motivated by kinship and justice, choose veganism. Indeed, refusing to extend kinship to non-human animals—when survival no longer demands their consumption—amounts to a retrenchment, not a revitalization, of Indigenous values.

Ritual, Respect, and Moral Consolation

Rituals of gratitude and ceremony, performed after killing an animal, are often said to transform a bad act into a good one. Psychological research, however, shows that such rituals primarily help the killer manage guilt, cognitive dissonance, and maintain a positive self-image. The animal does not benefit from the ritual; the harm remains. Honesty demands acknowledgment that these practices meet the needs of the human participant, not the victim. Genuine respect for animal personhood would demand abstaining from harm wherever possible, not simply dressing harm in the language of respect.

The Path Forward: Indigenous Veganism as Continuity and Growth

Indigenous veganism does not reject tradition, kinship, or cultural sovereignty; it deepens and radicalizes them. It asks: If we are committed to living in respectful relationship with all our relatives, should we not extend that respect to the fullest degree possible, especially when survival does not require killing? Indigenous veganism offers an ethic of solidarity, both with vulnerable animals and with human communities still healing from trauma and dispossession. It is not an erasure of identity, but a call to expand the circle of kinship and compassion, in a spirit of justice, humility, and courage.

In this light, the adoption of veganism by Indigenous individuals and communities is not a betrayal of Indigenous philosophy, but its most courageous and consistent fulfillment. It is, in truth, a reclamation of the highest Indigenous values—a commitment to minimize harm, honor all persons, and repair the web of kinship wherever it has been broken.

Eglinton Crosstown LRT Science Centre Station Renamed to the Don Valley Station in Toronto. The video discusses the closing of the Ontario Science Centre and how much it would have costed to fix the roof vs. the cost of renaming the Eglinton LRT station from the Science Centre to the Don Valley Station at Don Mills and Eglinton Ave. in North York Toronto.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/30909289

https://animaljustice.ca/blog/ontario-dairy-farm-cruelty-calves-found-alone-suffering

Article contains significant errors. MEC was never owned by its members. If it were, we would have had a say when it was sold, voting on whether to accept the offer, and receiving a share of the payout. MEC was never actually a cooperative. I think there should be consequences for this deception. I also think there need to be more consumer cooperatives than there are. Please mention any you know below.