Dear Editor, Politics, not law, are driving Yellowhead Council’s response to Hog Watch Manitoba’s revelations about a hog barn expansion near Strathclair. (See B.G. story, here.) Claims that its “investigation” reveals the operator was “found to be in compliance with laws and regulations” as reported in the October 24 Brandon Sun are false. Council’s informal plan to have taxpayers pay someone to count the Maple Leaf-owned pigs at this so-called family farm is a diversion designed to give the offender time to fix problems documented by Hog Watch. Counting pigs helps them evade their responsibility to regulate on the maximum number and type of pigs a barn can hold. Governments’ honour system has led to the approval of a new barn without making sure there is sufficient capacity to stor e manure. Only after the barn was built, over a thousand pigs put in it this spring, Hog Watch sounded an alarm and municipal