Freestone Australia dairy farmer Phil Christensen has spoken out about the chaos that erupted when “brainwashed” vegan activists approached his cattle.
The incident, which occurred at about 7am this morning, was filmed and posted online.
It was the second attack on the Queensland agriculture industry today, with protesters having already stormed Carey Bros Abattoir at Yangan, east of Warwick, before dawn.
Mr Christensen had heard news of what was happening at Yangan, about 20 minutes away, and was concerned for the safety of his stock.
When protesters began to approach his farm, his fears were confirmed.
“When they arrived the heifers ran towards them because that’s where they were being fed,” he said.
“I saw three calves out on the road with them and we started trying to get them back in.
“The (protesters) were all over the place, they had no idea what they were doing.”
The activists’ boisterous presence startled some of the herd and caused one calf to jump through the fence in fear.
Mr Christensen said the protesters were swearing at him.
“They started telling me, ‘you are not going to be here much longer, it’s a vegan world’,” he said.
“I said ‘not while I’m alive’,” he laughed.
He was also questioned on why he didn’t grow vegetables.
“I told them I don’t have the water for it, they don’t really understand how much water and how much chemical it takes to grow vegetables,” he said.
“We only got 20 inches of rainfall last year.”
Mr Christensen said the activists appeared to be young, and people who hadn’t “experienced life yet” or were “brainwashed”.
“They want to get their views across in the wrong way and expect the world to eat just grass,” he said.
“If we don’t have dairy farms here, I can tell you, you will be getting milk from overseas, then they have no control of it.
“We look after our animals, we keep them fat — we haven’t even sold off our bull calves in ages.
“We keep them or sell them on Facebook as pets, why are we all being tarred with the same brush?”
Source: The Weekly Times
