Agricultural fair shuts down Humane Society’s pig-crate display

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This article was published 17/08/2025 (289 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Staff members from the Winnipeg Humane Society were kicked out of an agricultural fair in rural Manitoba this weekend after they set up pig cages and placed people inside to show what it’s like for confined animals.

The Hanover Agricultural Fair posted a statement online Saturday saying the organization accepted the society as a vendor at the annual fair “in good faith,” under the assumption it would be promoting pet-adoption programs.

Instead, the society set up a display featuring an assortment of informational and advocacy materials, including brochures about pig-gestation crates and rodeos. Part of the display included a replica cage people could enter to experience what it feels like to be inside, Krista Boryskavich, the society’s director of animal advocacy, said by phone Sunday.

The display was in place for more than three hours Saturday before fair organizers shut it down, she said.

“What we were presenting did not align with the event’s values, and they asked us to leave, and so we did,” Boryskavich said.

“The whole point of us doing these events and doing this advocacy, it’s certainly not to create controversy or to create a divide in communities. We wanted to go out to rural Manitoba where factory farming is taking place to raise awareness.”

Boryskavich said the society has used the pig cage for years as a tool for education and advocacy. It set up the display at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival and the Manitoba Sunflower Festival in Altona without issues last month.

She said there was a miscommunication between the humane society and organizers of the Hanover fair. The display is intended to spark dialogue about gestation crates, Boryskavich said.

The metal cages are used to hold pregnant pigs. They have been criticized for being inhumane because they are usually only a few feet long and provide little space for the animals to stand, sit or lie down.

The Manitoba Pork Council began encouraging producers to stop using gestation crates more than a decade ago, with the expectation they would be fully phased out by 2025, the Free Press reported previously.

Boryskavich said the crates are still in use.

“There are two sides to every issue. Our focus is on the animal welfare context of these factory farming practices. Of course, a farmer might have a different perspective than us, but we want to make sure that people are getting the full perspective,” she said.

Boryskavich said the society will continue providing gestation crate demonstrations at various events, but will clearly communicate with event organizers beforehand.

She said the society is scheduled to appear at events in Selkirk and Richer before the end of the year.

The Hanover Ag Fair did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca