Michigan wants to kill outdoor pigs but is Canada any better? Rally Monday April 2 to protest CFIA’s extermination order on rare Shropshire sheep herd

Canadian farmer Montana Jones with one of her rare Shropshire sheep which the CFIA wants to kill.

You’ve no doubt read the stories in recent days about how Michigan’s Natural Resources Department has mysteriously concluded that most if not all of the free range (non CAFO) pigs in the state are an “invasive species” and therefore need to be shot, killed and disposed of. Meanwhile the Michigan Pork Producers  are endorsing the move, as the competition to their CAFO-raised pork is about to be eliminated.

Perhaps they’re tired of hearing about how more people prefer meat that’s raised the old fashioned local and organic way. But when all the other options are conveniently gone, people are just going to have to settle for what they can get and shut up about it.

No doubt you’re thinking that this is some sort of abuse of government power by private interests that’s going on down in the states. And maybe you’d be right about that. But we may have our own peculiar problems with regulatory overreach up here in Canada as well. Remember the story from December 2011 about Montana Jones’ herd of Shropshire sheep that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was proposing to kill, and for what seemed like no good reason.