Animal activists seek public donations to break into farms and steal livestock

ANIMAL rights activists are using public donations to break into farms and steal livestock.

ANIMAL rights activists are using public donations to break into farms and steal livestock.

The Weekly Times can reveal ­activists are receiving hundreds of financial contributions, via a website, to commit their crimes.

The thefts, which are discussed publicly online by the activists and those donating to them, are also being posted on social media platforms such as Instagram, where ­activists liken farming to “the holocaust” and encourage others to follow in their footsteps.

One activist has been receiving more than $2000 a month in donations to steal livestock and claims to have “rescued” more than 500 animals in 2018.

The Weekly Times can reveal the people donating to activists could be found complicit in the crimes.

One activist, who says she was charged with livestock theft 12 months ago and is now on bail, has more than 280 members of the public sponsoring her.

The activist, who is based in Queensland but admits to “rescuing” livestock from Victoria, receives more than $2000 a month from contributions.

She said the money was used to help pay for transport of animals, vet bills, donations to sanctuaries and even legal fees.

The activist, who classes herself as a public figure on Instagram, has more than 32,000 followers.

Last week she told her Instagram followers to “Google poultry farms, map them on a satellite … go back with a team late, wear balaclavas and check if the sheds are open”.

“It took me a while to get in with a group … I attended vigils and others who did rescues could see I was down to take the vigils further and break the law,” she wrote.

She wrote it was her job to “save” the animals and promises her “patrons” their donations “are going to good use”.

Photographs showing activists stealing livestock are being loaded on social media. Picture: Instagram

A GoFundMe page, another ­online means of fundraising, raised $8250 last year to help three activists pay lawyers after they were “charged by the police for allegedly entering a factory farm and allegedly rescuing chickens and piglets from the facilities”.

Victorian activist Joanne Lee ­receives $480 a month through public donations to train people on how to be active in the “vegan movement”, including entering farms to perform protests.

“We’re not attacking farmers and the farming community,” she said.

“This is about challenging our conditioning.”

Ms Lee said she used some of the money to teach civil disobedience, which includes protests and lockdown actions on farms.

She said activists had little faith in groups such as the RSPCA.

John Gommans, who farms goats in Yarragon and Caldermeade and runs the Gippy Goat Cafe, lost livestock to theft last month when 70 animal activists stormed his farm and allegedly stole three goats and a lamb.

Mr Gommans said he could not understand “why somebody could get funding to steal stock”.

“It doesn’t seem right,” he said.

Melbourne University Law School professor Jeremy Gans said while those giving money to help pay for legal fees were not breaking the law, “patrons” contributing ­financially to support the theft of livestock and break and enter were.

“If you encourage or assist someone to commit a crime then you’ve committed the crime as well, if they go on to do it,” he said.

Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said he “absolutely condemned” supporting activists financially to “wilfully break the law”.

“People can have ideology, but why are they taking the law into their own hands?” he said.

“If we could break any law we chose, our community structure would collapse as we know it.

“The fact they portray agriculture as evil is absolutely concerning.

“We are not trying to hurt anyone, we’re here to produce food.”

Mr Jochinke said there was not only concern over the act of theft, but also biosecurity and livestock traceability.

He said the VFF would raise the issue with police and look into investing more resources to understand the concerning trend.

“We need to give people surety,” he said.

Cameron Blewett, a vegan and founder of online blog The Vegan Police, which monitors activists’ activities, said the social media generation was “corrupting” vegan activism.

“These people are expecting other people to work so they don’t have to,” he said.

“It seems to me these are too human-focused actions — making actions about the participant, not the captive.

“They’re not paying attention to biosecurity protocols — it’s bad for the animals, bad for the perception for veganism and just shows no compassion or understanding, which is what veganism is all about.” A Victorian poultry farmer, who did not want to be named out of fear of being targeted again, caught activists loading his birds into a car at his free-range egg farm in 2015.

He told The Weekly Times three people who were charged got away with a written apology through their solicitor.

“The law’s very much on their side and I only think it’s going to get worse,” he said.

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