The lake and the animals can’t take anymore

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/07/2025 (267 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For almost as long as I can remember, Lake Winnipeg has been in trouble.

As cottage season begins each year, local news often reports on how the lake — the largest in Manitoba — won’t be swimmable for an upcoming long weekend or an annual festival. Too many nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus, we are told, cause toxic algal blooms, making the lake sick, even unsafe. And that’s usually where the story ends. Charity walks and bike rides are also held each year to raise awareness and funds to save the lake. But again, there is often little talk of the real root causes. That’s because a big part of the problem is something many don’t want to discuss: that our love of summer sausages, hot dogs and pork roasts is contributing to the death of Lake Winnipeg. And soon, some milk, cheese and ice cream production in the U.S. may make matters even worse.

“Lake Winnipeg is now considered to be eutrophic,” explains Vicki Burns, former Winnipeg Humane Society executive director, now founding member of Hog Watch Manitoba. She says that the source of the nutrients overburdening the lake is human waste, animal waste and synthetic fertilizers. However, she explains, while human waste is treated to decrease the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen before it is released, untreated animal manure is often over applied to land that is unable to use up all the nutrients.

And now, a new project being proposed in North Dakota could add even more waste to the lake by way of the Red River. Minnesota-based Riverview LLP, is hoping to build two mega-dairy factories, together housing over 37,500 cows, near the towns of Abercrombie and Hillsboro, located along the Red River. The scale of the project is staggering, as would be the waste, equating to millions of gallons of liquid manure produced annually. Communities and activists on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border are rightly alarmed, including Burns, who has teamed up with members of the Dakota Resource Council, Animal Justice, Manitoba Eco Network, Coalition to Save Lake Winnipeg, and others, to try to put a stop to the project.

But it’s not only the ecological harms caused by these industrial operations that are cause for concern. These massive farms are also a nightmare for animals. Here in Manitoba –the “bacon capital of Canada”— hogs are raised in filthy, overcrowded conditions, breathing toxic gases from waste pits beneath slatted floors that would kill them within hours if ventilation were to shut down. In 2022, a storm knocked out power to a factory farm in Manitoba, leading to 2,000 pigs essentially choking to death on the fumes of their own waste.

It’s mother pigs though, who suffer the worst, confined in stalls so small they can’t turn around, being forced to eat, sleep and defecate all in one spot. All in one spot. The Canadian hog industry pledged to phase out these cruel stalls by 2024, but have delayed action until 2029.

These farms are also known to impact surrounding communities. In the U.S. for example, particularly in heavily farmed North Carolina, dozens of nuisance lawsuits have exposed the devastating impacts of factory farms on rural residents. Residents have won significant compensation due to the unbearable odours and constant spraying of liquid hog waste onto nearby fields, contaminating the air and water. So there is good reason for why some Abercrombie, North Dakota residents are worried their wells may become contaminated if Riverview gets to build their dairy factories.

In Winnipeg, lawyer and director of legal advocacy for Animal Justice, Kaitlyn Mitchell, is worried about the welfare of the cows. “Approximately 37,500 calves will be born at these facilities each year,” she says, “since cows produce milk only because they are mothers.” Those calves, she notes, will then be taken away from their mothers shortly after birth, which research shows can cause severe distress. “Mega dairy operations like these effectively treat cows as milk machines,” she adds.

What’s too often left vague, or left out entirely, in many “save the lake” conversations, is the uncomfortable truth that supporting Manitoba’s pork industry is supporting the slow death of Lake Winnipeg. The same holds true for our neighbours to the south: supporting factory farming along the Red River means supporting harm to this vital ecosystem and to surrounding communities. And without a doubt, it all means supporting the suffering of thousands of animals.

Jessica Scott-Reid is a Winnipeg-based journalist and independent animal advocate. She is also the culture and disinformation correspondent for U.S. news outlet, Sentient.