March 4, 2019 12.58 pm This story is over 60 months old

200 vegan activists protest at local pig farm

A heated debate
Vegan activists from Meat The Victims UK inside Sandilands Farm on Newark Road in Laughterton. Photo: Instagram @r__i__v

Around 200 vegan activists protested outside a pig farm in a Lincoln village, with police present at the demonstration as well.

Riots squads and evidence gatherers with cameras walked up and down the road on Saturday, March 2 during the Meat The Victims UK protest at Sandilands Farm on Newark Road in Laughterton.

Several police vans and cars were spotted at the scene. No arrests were made.

Protestors at the scene standing up for a cause they are passionate about. Photo: Henry Washington Hutchings

Many of the activists on the road side were using each other’s phones to watch their colleagues’ live stream from inside the farm.

However, a pig farmer said “there’s nothing wrong here at all”.

Activists showing their message. Photo: Henry Washington Hutchings

Protest video

Joey Carbstrong uploaded a video of the protest to YouTube which has since had over 10,400 views.

Some 100 activists went inside the farm to create awareness about what is going on in the premises.

The video claims that in the back garden of Sandilands Farm there’s a “massive factory farm full of suffering and dead piglets and pigs screaming, and the smell of faeces pungent through the air”.

Protestors at the scene. Photo: Henry Washington Hutchings

In the video Joey said “the message is that these places operate in secrecy. The public are funding a place that they have no idea what goes on in there.

“We are trying to bring what happens in here to the light so that consumers understand that their money is funding something they’re probably morally against in their own heart.”

A pig inside the farm. Photo: Screenshot from Joey Carbstrong’s video

The protestors want to advocate for plant-based or vegan lifestyle so these farms don’t exist and animals are free.

One of the protestors said they are not pointing the blame at an individual or a set farm. They feel consumer and societal demand is the crux of the problem.

‘Nothing wrong here’

A pig farmer also spoke out in the video accusing the activists of causing the death of at least two piglets.

She said: “There’s nothing wrong here at all. All they keep telling to me is that I’m a murderer because I’m producing pigs that are going to be eaten.

“It’s just ridiculous. They call themselves animal rights and they’re the ones that have caused the deaths here today, it’s crazy.”

Police presence

Lincolnshire Police said: “We have a positive obligation to facilitate lawful peaceful protest and officers will remain on the scene until the protest has concluded.

“Members of the public are currently advised to avoid the area.”

Shortly before 8pm on Saturday evening police said all protestors left the site in Laughterton.

No arrests or charges were made in relation to the protest.

A reader contacted The Lincolnite saying there was another protest on the West Common, but police were unable to find any details of this alleged incident.

Supporting the protest

Henry Washington Hutchings told The Lincolnite he went to support the protest and do his best to mediate between activists, the public, police and any of the farmers of workers.

He claimed one activist captured a photo of the farmer woman “hanging a dead piglet by the hoof with no respect or interest in cradling the unfortunate animal”.

Denise Mary said these “dead babies were found in a walkway” which she claims were put there by farm workers earlier in day.

A few cars are also understood to have driven past with people shouting “bacon” out their windows.

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Henry said: “When it was heard that the activists were coming out of the facility, the protestors outside scrambled from one farm entrance to the other farm entrance.

“They were cheering and applauding the march of activists in biohazard suits as they streamed outside.”

Activists used flowers to show their thoughts and feelings for the animals. Photo: Henry Washington Hutchings

Activists used flowers to show their thoughts and feelings for the animals in the same way people lay them down for other humans.

Protestors with a pig inside the farm. Photo: Instagram @r__i__v

Activist River Braithwaite said a pig called Rudy rejected from all of the farrowing crates (pictured above) was lost from his original mother.

It is claimed he was being bitten by the sows and the other piglets and was unable to suckle.

A man managed to help the screaming pig and calm him down. The activists tried to negotiate his recuse, but Braithwaite said five police officers ripped him from their arms and took him back to the farmer.

She said: “It was a peaceful protests in order to bring attention to standard farming practices and to help people make the connection between the food on their plate and the individuals who suffered for it behind closed doors.

“It’s not about factory farming, it’s about all animal exploitation. We are abolitionists.”