The animal activists used battery acid to destroy farm equipment and electric tools to cut all conveyor belts and wreck forklifts on the farm. The activists have suggested on a website that the break-in was undertaken in the name of animal welfare. The reality could not be further from the truth. They also posted a video implying it was taken during the raid.

“We question the veracity of that footage. These home grown extremists have put at risk the welfare of 30,000 hens currently housed at the Pace Farm, Canberra,” Australian Egg Corporation Limited (AECL) Managing Director, James Kellaway, said.

“Contrary to the activists’ ill-informed claims, the destruction of facilities on the farm using battery acid and electric tools has caused extensive damage that had the potential to affect the welfare of the hens. It remains to be seen whether any alternative accommodation can be found at such short notice. The welfare of the hens has been placed in complete jeopardy as a direct result of this commercial vandalism.”

By breaking into the farm the activists also breached strict biosecurity procedures which are implemented to protect the welfare of the hens from life threatening diseases.

“Farm staff were working on site until late into the night. It was complete luck they were not onsite when the activists broke-in with their battery acid and electric tools,” Mr Kellaway said.

“It was, however, staff who were the first to discover the destruction this morning and were sickened by what they saw. They are shocked at how close they came to being caught up in the activists’ insane terrorism and the disruption they caused the hens. Staff are now fearful of their safety.”

“It has to be said that the increasingly hardline rhetoric of animal welfare groups has created an atmosphere that encourages extreme animal activists to operate. We urge legitimate animal welfare groups to be aware of the consequences of their hardline approach.”

“The Australian egg industry calls on animal welfare groups to publicly denounce the behaviour of extreme activists that not only puts the livelihoods of hard working, law-abiding Australians in jeopardy but puts at risk the welfare of the very animals they claim they are trying to protect. There is no place in Australia for this sort of extreme activity,” Mr Kellaway said.

AECL also said that the activist break-in will cause disruptions to cage, cage-free and free range egg supplies in the region, however it is too early to determine the extent to which this will occur and for how long it will last.