Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the commonwealth is prepared to join a legal challenge if any landholder wants to launch legal action against animal rights advocates protesting on their farms.
Campaigning in Brisbane, Queensland, on Monday, Morrison blasted recent protests by advocates that he dubbed “green-collared criminals” and declared “if there are pastoralists, farmers, graziers that are in a position to bring a civil action against these groups looking to undermine their livelihood, the commonwealth is totally open to supporting them in a test case to show these green criminals [it is not on].”
The comments follow protests across the country, including a demonstration on Monday morning involving more than 100 advocates that brought a busy intersection in Melbourne’s central business district to a standstill.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Thirty-eight people were charged with offenses related to obstructing a roadway and resisting police.
Other protests targeted four slaughterhouses in Victoria.
Nine people have been charged after chaining themselves to machinery at a slaughterhouse run by Southern Meats in Goulburn, New South Wales, in the early hours of Monday. Police were called to cut the protesters free.
Another cohort of animal rights protesters said that police tailed them to a Queensland slaughterhouse where they broke in and chained themselves up before negotiating their way out with three sheep.
No one was arrested or charged after 19 advocates invaded the Carey Bros Slaughterhouse near Warwick before dawn on Monday.
However, the owner of the business, Greg Carey, said that he wanted the protesters charged.
“They are trying to bring our primary agricultural industry to its knees using stand over tactics. This is un-Australian and harms the livelihood of many,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Morrison also urged state governments to take action.
Two people were charged with trespassing after an investigation following a mass protest on a Queensland feedlot last month.
The action was linked to a nationwide protest for animal rights that saw a cafe in Victoria close after what the owners said was “nearly four months of constant harassment.”
On Monday morning vegan advocates blocked the intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets in the heart of Melbourne for several hours.
The Melbourne protesters chained themselves to vehicles at about 7am, preventing trams and cars from getting through, and held up signs that read: “This is a peaceful protest” and “SOS animal emergency climate emergency.”
Vans draped in black and emblazoned with the Web address of a vegan documentary parked in the middle of the intersection. Protesters had set up a TV screen that was playing the footage.
Police covered some protesters in blankets while they used angle grinders to cut the chains, before leading them away into custody.
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