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A well-known pig and beef farm in Killucan, Co Westmeath became the site of a protest at the weekend, by members of an animal rights organisation known as “Meat the Victims.”
Forty people in matching t-shirts entered the farm and occupied the dry sow house for seven hours.
During that time the group, which included people from the UK, Holland, Ireland and other countries, broadcast live footage of one of the sows on social media.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, the farmer described the protestors as a “dangerous group of people.”
“We have to find out where farmers stand, when someone from a foreign country can get on a plane to Ireland, break into a farm, trespass, ignore all biosecurity measures, then leave and get back on the plane.”
Several gardaí attended the scene of the incident, as the activists focused their attention on a lame sow on the farm.
“They constantly tried to get her to rise, she was stressed and exhausted, so much so that she fell and cut her lip,” the farmer said.
According to him, a vet confirmed that the treatment of the sow prior to the activists’ arrival was in order and she was being cared for appropriately.
Policy needed
His concern now is for other farmers.
“This could be a dairy farm or a poultry farm next week,” he warned. “These are a very active group of people.”
“Farmers need to know how to deal with them. We can’t engage or react because confrontation is what these people want.”
“We shouldn’t be broken into, bullied and intimidated by vegans,” he said. “They have no right to break in, trespass and intimidate us.”
“Farmers have to stand together to highlight to the government that this can’t be let go on.”
He called for the gardaí and the Department of Agriculture to advise farmers on ways to protect their farms and animals from similar incidents.
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