Report of Battery Hen Action
Sunday 20th February 2011
It was before first light on Sunday 20th February. After careful planning the Coalition Against Factory Farming (that included members of AFA) set off for a battery hen farm in Tuakau. Around 6am Coalition members, corporate media and our own team of camera toting documenters converged at the entrance to the factory farm.
By around 6:35am two well prepared protesters from the Coalition were atop two 7 metre high feed silos, holding up banners that read 'ban cages', and 'battery hens suffer' to highlight the plight of the birds in the sheds below. Another larger banner was attached high to the front of the silos. The sickening stench of the farm permeated our nostrils in waves.
As the day progressed more caring people came to join us in opposition to Factory Farming. Tasty vegan foods kept us well sustained and in good cheer.The Tuakau farm is situated on a high traffic rural road and we recieved an overwhelmingly positive response from countless motorists, many stopped to express their disgust with the cruel ways the hens are kept and factory farming in general, showing a keen awareness of many issues.Locals joined us, taking up placards and banners. Some local children even baked us biscuits to help keep up energy levels, amazing!
Overall, we received a lot of media coverage from a broad section of corporate media, as well as our own media who were uploading images and messages from the demo throughout the day, we received a lot of positive feedback and some people even responded directly by coming out and joining the protest.
Coalition media spokespeople appeared on television news shows making clear, well backed arguments in favour of abolishing factory farming and when possible against farming in general.
There was a fluctuating number of police throughout the day with little impact on our activities other than trespassing protesters from the farm.
Overall we had a strong presence and a good turn out. We wish to say a big thanks to all who got involved! And we welcome you as well as anyone who wishes to get involved to come to the upcoming March Against Factory Farming in Wellington on Saturday March 5th, meeting at Civic Square next to the city library at 12 Midday.
If you can't make the march but are interested in getting active just get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!
In the mean time, here are some images from the day here and links to other medias coverage: TVNZ, TV3 News.
It was before first light on Sunday 20th February. After careful planning the Coalition Against Factory Farming (that included members of AFA) set off for a battery hen farm in Tuakau. Around 6am Coalition members, corporate media and our own team of camera toting documenters converged at the entrance to the factory farm.
By around 6:35am two well prepared protesters from the Coalition were atop two 7 metre high feed silos, holding up banners that read 'ban cages', and 'battery hens suffer' to highlight the plight of the birds in the sheds below. Another larger banner was attached high to the front of the silos. The sickening stench of the farm permeated our nostrils in waves.
As the day progressed more caring people came to join us in opposition to Factory Farming. Tasty vegan foods kept us well sustained and in good cheer.The Tuakau farm is situated on a high traffic rural road and we recieved an overwhelmingly positive response from countless motorists, many stopped to express their disgust with the cruel ways the hens are kept and factory farming in general, showing a keen awareness of many issues.Locals joined us, taking up placards and banners. Some local children even baked us biscuits to help keep up energy levels, amazing!
Overall, we received a lot of media coverage from a broad section of corporate media, as well as our own media who were uploading images and messages from the demo throughout the day, we received a lot of positive feedback and some people even responded directly by coming out and joining the protest.
Coalition media spokespeople appeared on television news shows making clear, well backed arguments in favour of abolishing factory farming and when possible against farming in general.
There was a fluctuating number of police throughout the day with little impact on our activities other than trespassing protesters from the farm.
Overall we had a strong presence and a good turn out. We wish to say a big thanks to all who got involved! And we welcome you as well as anyone who wishes to get involved to come to the upcoming March Against Factory Farming in Wellington on Saturday March 5th, meeting at Civic Square next to the city library at 12 Midday.
If you can't make the march but are interested in getting active just get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!
In the mean time, here are some images from the day here and links to other medias coverage: TVNZ, TV3 News.
