13 March 2012

The Egg Corporation response to the Parkwood saboteurs

| johnboy
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In the interests of balance here is the Australian Egg Corporation media release in response to the attack on Parkwood’s egg operation:

Early this morning, animal activists broke into Pace Egg Farm, Canberra, in what is believed to be one of the worst examples of industrial sabotage in Australia.

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,” 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 bio-security 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.

Please note: Pace Farm, Canberra provides the ACT and surrounding area with a large portion of the region’s cage, cagefree and free range retail eggs. The cage-free and free range eggs are shipped to the site from outlying regional farms where they are then packed and distributed. 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.

egg corporation

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p1 said :

Without getting bogged down in definitions of the word “necessary”, I think bombing Hiroshima was the correct thing to do. Nagasaki probably not.

The hell is this argument?
Dropping that bomb had nothing to do with right or wrong. It was the undeniable benefit it would bring to the allies. Saving the lives of many American and Australian soldiers was only a part of it.

The Japanese civilian casualty? Collateral damage?
Damage to the battery farm? Insane terrorism?

slimshady554612:35 pm 15 Mar 12

thye deserved everything they got

I personally buy free range eggs, but people must buy the cheapest battery hen eggs still, otherwise, you’d think they would go out of business. Not like its hard to know given the laws that supermarkets have to label and seperate the three types.

Still radical action like this never solves any issues. They should have snuck in and got some photos of some cute chicks in poor conditions and got them plastered all over the place people hate to see cute animals in danger. They like to hate extremists.

DarkLadyWolfMother said :

Hiroshima is probably not such a great example of “necessary” since it probably wasn’t.

Without getting bogged down in definitions of the word “necessary”, I think bombing Hiroshima was the correct thing to do. Nagasaki probably not.

Proboscus said :

HenryBG said :

LSWCHP said :

Emphatic but peaceful and legal protest is a far more fruitful and productive way to go.

Effecting change can take all sorts of different action, including violence if necessary. Hence Hiroshima. “Peaceful” protest is not always the correct action.

I never thought of it that way before but I guess that a protest against an egg farm is comparable to the end of the war in the Pacific..

Of course. The treatment of chickens parallels perfectly with the struggle against captivity and/or complete annihilation by millions of people across multiple continents. It’s an entirely relevant comparison…

…if your head is stuck firmly up your backside.

DarkLadyWolfMother9:28 am 15 Mar 12

HenryBG said :

LSWCHP said :

Emphatic but peaceful and legal protest is a far more fruitful and productive way to go.

Effecting change can take all sorts of different action, including violence if necessary. Hence Hiroshima. “Peaceful” protest is not always the correct action.

Hiroshima is probably not such a great example of “necessary” since it probably wasn’t.

HenryBG said :

LSWCHP said :

Emphatic but peaceful and legal protest is a far more fruitful and productive way to go.

Effecting change can take all sorts of different action, including violence if necessary. Hence Hiroshima. “Peaceful” protest is not always the correct action.

I never thought of it that way before but I guess that a protest against an egg farm is comparable to the end of the war in the Pacific..

LSWCHP said :

Emphatic but peaceful and legal protest is a far more fruitful and productive way to go.

Effecting change can take all sorts of different action, including violence if necessary. Hence Hiroshima. “Peaceful” protest is not always the correct action.

I’m with Tooks on this.

I come from a farming family, and my old man was the NSW champion junior chicken farmer of the year (of all things!) sometime back in the early 50s. Animals, even ones destined to become dinner, should be treated with respect and humanity and it seems to me that battery hens get treated pretty horribly.

On the other hand, violence and destruction in the name of ideology is simply The Wrong Thing To Do. If nothing else, the instinctive revulsion generated by this sort of action will cause people (or at least me) to lose sympathy with their cause.

Emphatic but peaceful and legal protest is a far more fruitful and productive way to go.

http://www.ebra.org/ebrabulletin-uk-activists-desecrate-grave_145.htm

Some people feel very strongly about animal rights.

shadow boxer6:32 pm 14 Mar 12

They are just chickens, the world eats 147 million of them every day.

I am amazed that they could even attempt to turn this around and try to make themselves out to be all about the welfare of the chickens and their poor, dear staff.

They failed to mention exactly how the damage caused to the machinery put the chickens in danger. I suspect the only danger was of extending their miserable lives for a few more days. And as for the delicate sensibilities of their staff……. what a joke. These people see how these birds suffer day in and day out and are clearly OK with it. But damage a piece of machinery and they are sickened. Yeah…right !

p1 said :

If they keep up a sustained campaign of sabotage to the business it is only a matter of time before they can no longer get insurance and will go broke. Like it or not, that could well be an effective way of achieving their goals.

Of course, having read what I just wrote ranted I realise the problem with this approach. They would be also shutting down the site that processes and distributes all the local free range eggs. For all their insistence that the action would not harm the chooks, but just the processing, it would actually make more sense for their ultimate goal to take actions that disrupt the cage hen part of the business and leave alone the part that processes free range eggs.

That might hurt some chooks, but after all, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.

I wonder how many people can say with 100% assurance that they never consume cage produced eggs.

I’m not talking about cage/ free range eggs purchased at the supermarket for home consumption.

Even if supermarkets stopped selling cage eggs, free range eggs would still only be a small percentage of the eggs produced.

Unless you are a vegan, or check that every food you eat contains either only free range eggs or no eggs at all along the production line then there is a very high chance you have consumed egg sourced from caged hens.

Anyone who thinks that the local Chinese/ Italian/ Turkish/ Vietnamese etc etc restaurant or companies like Sara Lee give a rats and only use free range eggs are living in la la land.

We can all do our small bit, and it makes us feel all warm and fuzzy buying free range eggs from the supermarket, but don’t kid yourself that that stops caged hen egg production.

If one egg from a caged hen was consumed by you in the last six months you are just as responsible as Pace etc and all their workers for the living conditions the hens live in.

I have a question.

Is the primary action here to raise public awareness of the evil of the intensive production of eggs for human consumption? Because if it is then I would suggest some ingenious stunt which attracts media attention might have worked better and not got some many people off side. Something with naked supermodels would be my preference, although one dude recently got lots of attention for his cause by building a raft with a teepee on it. If they insist in breaking in, the could have simply filmed, maybe “liberated” some poor creatures to highlight there cause, but avoided anything which made them into terrorists.

Or

Is the intention to cause, through the destruction of machinery, disruption to the profitable operation of the business therefore bringing about its end. I admit the perpetrators made a smart move timing wise doing this while the sheds were being emptied anyway. If they keep up a sustained campaign of sabotage to the business it is only a matter of time before they can no longer get insurance and will go broke. Like it or not, that could well be an effective way of achieving their goals.

I would suggest that they should have stuck to one or the other of these methods, and not tried to gain extra miles by combining them. “the object of terrorism is terrorism”, or to scare, threaten etc people into doing what you want. By making public statements about the damage they did all they have done is piss people off. Unless they start using sniper rifles to shoot anyone leaving Woolies with a Dozen Cage Eggs, informing the wider public of there actions is the wrong move. The people they want to terrorise are the people profiting from the cruelty to the chooks. So cut conveyor belts if that is your thing, but for gods sake think about your strategy a bit so that you are not just wasting everyone’s time.

Jim Jones said :

chewy14 said :

Jim Jones said :

bigfeet said :

jsm2090 said :

Yeah, I’d hardly call it terrorism. .”

Luckily you don’t have to call it terrorism.

The law does that for you.

Section 100.1 of the Criminal Code defines a terrorist act as an action which is done the intention of advancing an ideological cause… or influencing by intimidation, the government of …the Territory…or intimidating the public or a section of the public. (paraphrased)

The action will be defined as a terrorist act if it seriously damages property;

This act seems to fit within all of those elements.

So by legal definition it is a Terrorist Act.

By that definition half of the posts made in RiotAct are terrorist acts.

How many RA posts seriously damage property?

Do broken keyboards count?

I sometimes dribble on mine.

I hate battery cages. Almost as much as I hate nutters like these criminals who break in and damage someone elses equipment.

Buzz2600 said :

“It was, however, staff who were the first to discover the destruction this morning and were sickened by what they saw.”

Too bad they’ve never paused to consider the sickening conditions caged hens have to endure.

My oath. sickened by a broken conveyor belt, but not by clipping beaks, or cramming birds into tiny cages? Plus all the other things we hear about battery farms, hens that fall into the pit underneath left to die slowly, hens dying in the cages or injured… I wish we could see an end to this rotten way of farming eggs.

chewy14 said :

Jim Jones said :

bigfeet said :

jsm2090 said :

Yeah, I’d hardly call it terrorism. .”

Luckily you don’t have to call it terrorism.

The law does that for you.

Section 100.1 of the Criminal Code defines a terrorist act as an action which is done the intention of advancing an ideological cause… or influencing by intimidation, the government of …the Territory…or intimidating the public or a section of the public. (paraphrased)

The action will be defined as a terrorist act if it seriously damages property;

This act seems to fit within all of those elements.

So by legal definition it is a Terrorist Act.

By that definition half of the posts made in RiotAct are terrorist acts.

How many RA posts seriously damage property?

Do broken keyboards count?

“It was, however, staff who were the first to discover the destruction this morning and were sickened by what they saw.”

Too bad they’ve never paused to consider the sickening conditions caged hens have to endure.

Holden Caulfield9:21 am 14 Mar 12

bigfeet said :

jsm2090 said :

Yeah, I’d hardly call it terrorism. .”

Luckily you don’t have to call it terrorism.

The law does that for you.

Section 100.1 of the Criminal Code defines a terrorist act as an action which is done the intention of advancing an ideological cause… or influencing by intimidation, the government of …the Territory…or intimidating the public or a section of the public. (paraphrased)

The action will be defined as a terrorist act if it seriously damages property;

This act seems to fit within all of those elements.

So by legal definition it is a Terrorist Act.

Remember, this wasn’t described as your average, run of the mill terrorism, but insane terrorism!

Jim Jones said :

bigfeet said :

jsm2090 said :

Yeah, I’d hardly call it terrorism. .”

Luckily you don’t have to call it terrorism.

The law does that for you.

Section 100.1 of the Criminal Code defines a terrorist act as an action which is done the intention of advancing an ideological cause… or influencing by intimidation, the government of …the Territory…or intimidating the public or a section of the public. (paraphrased)

The action will be defined as a terrorist act if it seriously damages property;

This act seems to fit within all of those elements.

So by legal definition it is a Terrorist Act.

By that definition half of the posts made in RiotAct are terrorist acts.

How many RA posts seriously damage property?

bigfeet said :

jsm2090 said :

Yeah, I’d hardly call it terrorism. .”

Luckily you don’t have to call it terrorism.

The law does that for you.

Section 100.1 of the Criminal Code defines a terrorist act as an action which is done the intention of advancing an ideological cause… or influencing by intimidation, the government of …the Territory…or intimidating the public or a section of the public. (paraphrased)

The action will be defined as a terrorist act if it seriously damages property;

This act seems to fit within all of those elements.

So by legal definition it is a Terrorist Act.

By that definition half of the posts made in RiotAct are terrorist acts.

jsm2090 said :

Yeah, I’d hardly call it terrorism. .”

Luckily you don’t have to call it terrorism. The law does that for you.

Section 100.1 of the Criminal Code defines a terrorist act as an action which is done the intention of advancing an ideological cause… or influencing by intimidation, the government of …the Territory…or intimidating the public or a section of the public. (paraphrased)

The action will be defined as a terrorist act if it seriously damages property;

This act seems to fit within all of those elements.

So by legal definition it is a Terrorist Act.

Yeah, I’d hardly call it terrorism. It’s nice that they seem to have the hens’ welfare at the forefront of their minds though.

I translated the last sentence as “we now have seemingly valid reasons to inflate the price of our product.”

Holden Caulfield 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.”

Jesus, both sides are pecking lunatics.

+1 This comment had me laughing for a while. And totally agree. they are just as bad as each other.

What kind of pussy Farm staff are they employing these days? I grew up on a farm and any power tool waving Wacktivist would have been looking down the pointy end of one of the various “vermin control devices” that were stored within close proximity to areas where their use was required.

Talk about purple prose. Acid-weilding maniacs! The Egg-Farm conveyor belt massacre!

I dunno, I’m thinking the workers at that farm must be pretty hardened, seeing the way those chickens are treated every day… heck, they’re the ones doing the treating, aren’t they?

Holden Caulfield2:34 pm 13 Mar 12

“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.”

Jesus, both sides are pecking lunatics.

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