12,000 Pigs Killed In Minnesota Barn Fire A ‘Tragedy’

WASECA, MN — The question some animal rights activists are asking about the 12,000 or so pigs that were killed in a barn fire Sunday night in southern Minnesota isn’t how the fire started but why that many pigs were penned so closely together in one spot and unable to escape the inferno.

“This tragedy brings a horrific end to the lives of pigs who already were forced to live a life of suffering crammed together inside a factory farm,” Christine Coughlin, Minnesota state director for the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement to Patch.

Coughlin isn’t alone. On one hand, confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, allow for pig farming to happen almost anywhere and create economic efficiencies, and the regimented diets can produce the uniform pork chops and bacon that consumers desire.

But animal ethicists say crowding intelligent pigs together in one building is cruel and inhumane, and environmentalists argue the manure they produce pollutes groundwater and creates health problems for people living near them.

The Minnesota Pork Producers Association also calls the pigs’ death a tragedy.

“There is no one more saddened by this tragedy than the pig farmers who care for the well-being of their animals every day,” Lauren Servick, marketing director for the Pork Producers Association, said in a statement to Patch.

Trucks from nine fire departments responded to the Woodville Pork farm on 368th Avenue in Waseca Sunday night, taking several hours to fully put out the barn fire that killed the pigs, KEYC and others have reported.

Waseca Fire Chief Jason Forshee told the news station about 9,000 piglets and about 3,000 sows died in the fire. The cause of the fire hadn’t been determined by Thursday, and Marshall Radio said it could be several days before it’s determined.

Farming experts in the area have said the lack of rain, coupled with high winds, have caused other farm building fires, KEYC reported.

The fire won’t affect the supply of pork in the state, according to Minnesota Pork Producers Association CEO David Preisler. He told KEYC that the pork produced at the Woodville farm is “a very small portion” of what’s produced throughout Waseca County and statewide.

“It isn’t gonna have really an economic impact on the region or the state,” Preisler said, according to KEYC.

Minnesota is the No. 2 pork producing state in the country, with an inventory of about 9 million pigs in hogs. Its neighbor, Iowa, is the top producing pork state with more than double the number.

To Coughlin, it’s the “disregard for the treatment of pigs” that’s “nothing new in the pork industry.”

Servick said it is common for that many pigs to be found in one place on a farm.

“In modern pig farming, it is common to have many pigs in barns that are designed and engineered to protect those pigs from the elements, keep pigs healthy and provide a safe environment for the pigs and the people who care for them,” Servick said.

Patch has reached out to Woodville Pork but had not received a response as of Thursday afternoon.