Poultry farm at Coldstream a target for animal activists

STEVE Wagner, a third-generation poultry farmer at Coldstream, knows all too well what it’s like to have a business targeted by animal rights activists.

Fed up: Steve Wagner at the Coldstream property where his family runs their business Wagner's Poultry Hatchery. Only after an alarm system was installed in chicken sheds was the family’s suspicions of frequent break-ins confirmed. Picture: Dannika Bonser

STEVE Wagner, a third-generation poultry farmer at Coldstream, knows all too well what it’s like to have a business targeted by animal activists.

The Wagner family has caught activists stealing their chickens three times — the first was about 30 years ago and most recently after the family installed an alarm in late 2017.

“They keep doing it because they know they’re going to get away with it,” Mr Wagner said.

Mr Wagner’s father Hams said the recent attack simply saw the activists, who were charged, put on a diversion program and instructed to write an apology letter.

Steve said the activists could have been stealing their birds for up to a year before the newly installed alarm allowed them to catch anyone in the act.

“We kind of knew someone was breaking into the property — in winter time we could see footprints that weren’t ours … one time we found a drink bottle in the shed,” he said.

Hams said he was shocked to find the activists with his chickens in canvas shopping bags in the middle of the night.

“Farming today is hard enough without having to get up at night because an alarm goes off to see if there’s someone running around in your shed pinching chooks,” he said. “It’s just not on.”

Before the incident, Steve said his family was forced to get legal advice and threaten to sue one activist for defamation after pictures of allegedly mistreated birds went viral online.

The Wagners deny the ­activists’ accusations.

Wagner’s Poultry once ran 50,000 chickens when it was producing eggs full time.

It has since diversified into a hatchery and sells backyard chooks, now only running about 10,000 birds.

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