Alix, the ‘vegan soldier’ who filmed her piggery invasion
Alix Livingstone, who calls herself a “vegan soldier”, filmed herself and other activists as they stormed a Melbourne piggery with chains and pipes.
Self proclaimed “vegan soldier” Alix Livingstone has led another animal house invasion, storming a piggery in Melbourne with her “army” of activists who chained themselves in before their arrest.
“Alix the Vegan” is just 23 years old but a veteran of trespass of chook sheds, beef farms, and lamb sales all in the name of defending animals.
She has sobbed at slaughterhouses and inside batteries, and at one of the nationwide vegan protests in Melbourne to promote the anti-animal cruelty documentary, Dominion.
Livingstone and her troupe of vegan protesters broke into the Australian Food Group piggery at Laverton in western Melbourne about 3am on Monday armed with chains and pipe.
The male and female activists chained themselves to pig pens and sties while Alix roamed free to film herself and the protest as piggery workers and then police moved in.
Alix asked for a pig to take away with them but was denied.
“They refused to let us save a life today which means that when we leave every single one of these pigs will be lowered into a gas chamber,” she says into the camera during the hour-plus long video (featured above).
“They will have their throats cut so consumers can eat bacon and pork and ham.
“This is the cost of eating animal products, you are putting animals through a life of misery.”
When Victorian Police arrived at the property, Livingstone asks if she and her accomplices can avoid arrest if they leave of their own free will and an officer agrees.
But she then complains on camera police reneged on the deal because the group took too long to free themselves.
RELATED: Vegans protest in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Hobart
RELATED: What vegan protesters actually want
Police then cut the PVC pipe through which they threaded chains to railings, which Livingstone says she hopes will be “safe” and that no-one is hurt.
Livingstone, who has a tattoo on her right arm with the Dominion film’s motto #We will rise together”, is charged along with the other activists.
She switches off the video to state her name and address, but is told she is free to go.
One unfortunate activist who is carrying no form of identification is told by police officers to accompany them back to the station.
Livingstone’s Instagram page is full of videos and images of her attempting to rescue animals.
In one, she scream through a megaphone at farmers at a lamb sale, “50 million lambs”.
“We are here to stand up for the victims,” she cries.
When things get rough and she is pushed out of the way, she shouts: “You’re on camera, you can’t touch us. You can’t touch us. Don’t push me.
“You’re grown men, this is how you treat women.”
Livingstone’s Instagram page reads: “Animal Liberation Activist. Respect existence or expect resistance.
“You don’t know what you live for, until you know what you would die for.”
In another video, she screams through her megaphone: “What humans do to animals for consumption is inexcusable.
“Everything they have is taken from them, their uniqueness, their individuality.
“All the things that make them who they are is stolen away, turned into bottle of milk, blocks of cheese, pieces of meat. For no more than a five minute meal.”
Livingstone has an online fundraising page on patreon.com under her Alix the Vegan moniker to raise money for her activism.
It reads: “My mission is to help bring the truth to consumers of the abhorrent cruelty towards animals that is ingrained throughout our society in the way humans eat, clothe and entertain. “In 2019 I would like to organise more actions to raise awareness about the plight of animals and bring public attention to these issues.”
She lists the cost of her activism as “transport, posters, banners, food/snacks for the team, protective gear”.
A trailer for the two-hour film Dominion shows pigs and sheep in pens, racehorses and greyhounds bursting out of the start at the track, aerial shots of animals and sinister looking metal devices with blood on them.
Chickens, geese, rabbits and cows also feature, as well as workers clubbing or hitting animals and then close-ups of the eyes of animals, birds and fish.
As a song, “today, we will see the sun … we will rise together” plays, the words flash up on the screen, “an empire … built on secrecy … will be exposed”.
Last year Alix made headlines after she stormed the Benalla slaughterhouse in Victoria.
She chained herself to railings in a bid to free two Bobby calves, but was unsuccessful.
In a video of the event, she comforts a shackled calf moments before it is killed in the abattoir. She weeps while cradling and comforting the young animal.
Dominion executive director Chris Delforce told news.com.au the film had received a “huge” international response and had been translated into 39 languages since its release last year.
Delforce said Monday’s national protest was held to encourage the federal agricultural minister and his state counterparts to show “increasing transparency” about how animals were killed.
“There are officials who have called us ‘terrorists’,” he said.
“But I think we need to have a conversation as a country. I think most of us are opposed to animal cruelty.”
Supporters of the Dominion doco held protests in NSW, Queensland and Tasmania as well as in rural Victoria, with protesters forcing slaughterhouse lockdowns by chaining themselves in.
A blockade of Melbourne’s iconic intersection near Flinders Station stopped traffic as 100 activists chanted slogans before some were arrested.
The protests attracted mixed responses from Facebook users, with some people deriding the protesters and saying it would only encourage them to eat more meat.
One man wrote, “I’ll be having two steaks tonight”, while another said that although they had given up steak they were angry at the “idiots” who stopped traffic.
Mandy Williams wrote: “People purposely having meat today in spite of u because u r so incredibly annoying & going about this all wrong.
“What a ridiculous counter productive exercise this has been it’s like an ad for meat. It’s snags 4 us while you go home in the back of a divvy van.”
ð¤¦ââï¸ looks like itâll be two steaks for me tonight! #wewillrisetogether
â Paul Maric (@PaulMaric) April 7, 2019
It was going to be Meat Free Monday for me but #WeWillrisetogether ruined my morning! The only thing that can fix this bad mood is a Bacon & Egg roll! Good on yah you tools #victraffic
â JK (@JKsOnTheRadio) April 7, 2019
Ugh... I was supposed to start my vegetarian detox but now I want a steak...#wewillrisetogether
â BiaK (@BiaKing93) April 7, 2019
I have actually switched to a diet where I eat mostly vegetarian food due to my mora concerns about meat farming. I havenât craved a steak in 3 months but today Iâm thoroughly tempted out of spite for these idiots. #wewillrisetogether
â Foo ð³ð¿ð¦ðºð³ï¸âðð¦ (@foofoxtweets) April 7, 2019