Around 50 vegan activists entered a chicken slaughterhouse in Australia this morning, shutting down the production line.
A further 30 campaigners with Animal Liberation Queensland protested outside Golden Cockerel chicken slaughterhouse at Mount Cotton with placards.
According to the group, it wanted ‘to bring awareness to the 664 million chickens slaughtered every year in Australia and to tell their stories’.
It shared video footage from inside the slaughterhouse, showing the animals shackled upside down, and dismembered body parts being discarded.
Police
According to local media, a Queensland Police Service spokesperson confirmed that police from Redland Bay station were at the scene.
The spokesperson added that the protest was non-violent but activists had trespassed onto private property. No arrests have been reported.
Law enforcement had been called at 7.30am Australian Eastern Standard Time (about 30 minutes after the activists had entered the property).
Vegan action
“664 million individuals slaughtered every single year, most of them just babies, yet how much do we see of them or hear in the news?” said a statement by the group.
“In the lead up to Christmas, we must consider the lives that are impacted by what we chose to eat – or rather who we choose to eat.
“We need to pause and consider these animals – not as packages on a supermarket shelf – but as unique individuals – individuals deserving of kindness and compassion, and lives of their own worth living.
“Chickens can communicate with more than 20 different vocalizations and learn from past experiences. They are amazingly sensitive, affectionate individuals with unique personalities. We all have a choice. But unfortunately, they don’t. Choose kindly.”
All 50 activists left the slaughterhouse some three hours after entering it.
Golden Cockerel has declined to speak to media so far.