Animal activists target facilities

In Victoria, activists from Bear Witness Australia and Aussie Farms entered the Nhill site of the Luv A Duck duck farm to protest about a lack of swimming water for the ducks.

In Queensland, animal activists broke into the piggery at Glasshouse Country Farms at Beerburrum in the Sunshine Coast hinterland and staged a sit-in.

That action was in response to footage release by Animal Liberation Queensland (ALQ) several weeks ago, which the activists claim contained extreme violence inflicted on mother pigs and their offspring.

At Nhill, the protesters filled wading pools with water and removed ducks from the business to allow them to swim, and also climbed onto a rooftop with banners.

Spokesperson for Bear Witness and Aussie Farms Lissy Jane said the pools highlighted the cruelty in not giving aquatic birds access to water to swim and wade in.

“It is not just Luv-A-Duck but other intensive duck rearing businesses where ducks do not have water access,” Ms Jane said.

“This is not a particularly radical concept it is just about simple animal welfare, this is something we could and should be doing better.”

“We gave the ducks the chance to swim for the first time in their lives.”

However, Luv-a-Duck chief executive Daryl Bussell said the treatment of the ducks at the facility was in line with scientific evidence and added they had access to water.

He said protesters had trespassed onto the site, which had raised biosecurity concerns for the animals.

“They have a view that is somewhat different to the scientific evidence we have and would prefer to see ducks in open-range environments,” he said.

He paid tribute to staff at the site.

“When people who have a very different ideology come onto private property and try to force their opinions on others, that's a potentially volatile situation,” he said.

In Queensland, spokeswoman Joanne Lee, said the ultimate goal of the group was to stop the rearing of livestock for food.

“The message is simple, animals are here with us, not for us,” she said.

“Animals’ lives are their right and what is happening to them is unjust, needless violence, there is no humane way to exploit and kill someone.

“This is not about better welfare conditions or standards, it is about stopping the killing and changing community attitudes.”

Ms Lee said the group was not against the farming community.

“We are not attacking the farming community, we just think there needs to be a change towards plant-based diets, in this day and age we don’t need to eat animals.”

The action saw 68 activists locked down inside the pig prison for six hours.

Ms Lee said 34 people refused to leave and they were charged with trespass.

“It was explained to us that we could protest from the outside but in this case the treatment of the animals is unjust and can only be highlighted from the inside so this is why people remained and were arrested.”

Leah Doellinger was inside the piggery.

She said the protest challenged human supremacy.

“We need to dismantle the speciesist (sic) ideologies that have reduced animals to 'things',” she said.