Activists who killed piglets at protest told farmer ‘you would have murdered them anyway’
More than 200 activists who targeted a random pig farm squashed two piglets to death in their bid to not leave the site until the national media showed up.
Lauren Dean
Meat the Victims UK turned up at Sandilands Farm, Laughterton, on Saturday morning (March 2) with about 100 members of the group protesting inside a farrowing barn.
Speaking to the local press, farmer Sylvia Hook said she was unsure as to why the farm had been targeted and that the activists – who she said had killed two piglets – told her ‘you would have murdered them anyway’.
Activist Chris Hine however reportedly said: “Unless you can show definitive evidence that piglets have died because of activists being in there then they have not got much of a case.”
The group said it wanted to increase transparency in the industry and ‘expose the reality of factory farming’.
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Lizzie Wilson, policy services manager at the National Pig Association, said the move highlighted the activists ‘total ignorance of actual animal welfare’ and proved ‘their self-indulgent behaviour is not tolerated by the general public’.
She said the fact some of the activists had flown in from other countries also posed a major biosecurity risk – especially considering the proximity of African Swine Fever.
Lincolnshire Police said it was working to discover is any offences were committed.
A Lincolnshire Police spokesperson said: “Officers were called to Sandilands Farm, Newark Road, Laughterton, following a call at 11.58am on March 2 about a protest at the site.
“All protestors left the site by 7pm and no arrests were made.
“We are working with partner agencies to investigate the circumstances of the incident, and to establish if any offences were committed.”
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