The truth about how ‘food’ animals are treated in Aotearoa, and around the world, is held behind the closed doors of the nations factory farms and slaughterhouses. To expose this truth, understand the reality for these animals and better advocate on their behalf we need to enter these facilities.

After the farm tour one of the people who came was asked on her facebook why she went, she said ‘I had the opportunity and just wanted to see for myself. Being there is so much more powerful than seeing photos and videos’

It is for these very reasons that we take people on farm tours.

On Saturday we had the first farm tour of the decade and by all accounts it was rather eventful, emotional and muddy.

We started the day at 5.45am huddling, somewhat nervously, in the shelter of an abandoned car wash wondering what the morning might have in store for us. After everyone arrived we went through our usual spiel about not breaking anything, not taking anything/anyone and leaving the property when asked and then off we went down the southern motorway in convoy.

We took the off ramp at Takanini and headed for the Cheeky Chicken on Airfield Road. We got out of the cars and moved quickly down the driveway and into the sheds. Much to our surprise the sheds were empty; no cages and no hens.

This farm has been the site of several ALF raids in the past as well as visits from above ground activists over the years. Photos from the farm show that they originally had 'old fashioned' cages in two tiers with excrement covering the shed floor and piling up under the cages. As of the 1st of January 2009 the Codes of Welfare for Layer Hens required all battery hen cages in the country to be able to fully open at the front and provide each hen with 550 sqcm of space. This meant that most older cages had to be upgraded. Last year we saw new cages outside the sheds at the Cheeky Chicken and all signs indicated that the farm was upgrading the cages to meet the new regulations. However it was good to see that that was not the case and they have instead decided to close down.

We went back to the cars and carried on our way to a pig farm near Pokeno. When we found this farm, a few weeks earlier, we knew that is would be harder to get to than a stroll up the driveway and we were right. As we parked our cars near the farm driveway we set off two guard dogs who are chained up near the house. Luckily the farmer did not come out, then. We jumped over a fence and moved down the shelter belt of a paddock; obscuring our presence from the house. Then came the requirement of commando style moves. A stream ran through the middle of the paddock and we had two choices get wet and muddy or use the driveway and risk the farmer seeing us before we got to the sheds. There was not much choice really so we through ourselves into the stream; some of us quite literally resulting in water and mud nearly to the top of our thighs.

None of us had ever been to this farm before so we had no idea what to expect. The entrance to the shed led to two doors; one locked and the other not. We first went into the unlocked part of the shed. As is typical of pig farms we found the shed to be very dark, run down and disgusting. No nesting materials were provided to any of the pigs and their drinking water was stagnant and contaminated with urine and excrement.

Everything else about the farm was rather random. The shed consisted of several small pens; half of which were not in use. One of the pens housed a group of young piglets, who by the looks of things had only just been taken from their mother. They were laying on each other in a pile in the corner of their filthy pen. Unlike most farms that have all pink piglets these ones came in a variety if patterns and colours. Four or five other pens housed two sows each and a final pen housed a mother and her babies. The sight of these pigs living in such filthy barren conditions led some of those on our tour to tears.

After patting the pigs and taking in the conditions they were living in we went outside and tried to find a way to enter the other part of the building. There was no unlocked door but we were able to see in from the outside. The shed contained more pens; this time with mothers and their very young babies. Again only half of the shed seemed to be in use and there were no farrowing or sow stalls except for in one pen. The very last pen had one sow in a portable sow stall; her babies were also in the pen.

After having seen enough we made our way back to the cars. We tried a different route back to the road because we heard the farmer out on her quad bike; she seemed to be looking for something; us. In a hurry we made our way through the stream just as gracefully as earlier. We came up over a hill to be met by a woman and her two farm dogs. We were close to the cars and had seen what we wanted so we saw no point in engaging with her. Despite her trying to talk to us we just ignored her and keep walking to the road.

Two farms down; one to go (well actually two more). Anyone who knows factory farming in South Auckland will know that the area is absolutely riddled with farms. Driving towards the broiler farm we decided to make an impromptu stop at Bromley Park Hatcheries simply because it seemed rude to drive by and not stop.

Bromley Park Hatcheries are one of only two commercial breeders of layer hens in the country. They house the grandparent and parent birds who produce the chicks that go to battery, barn raised and free range layer hen farms. Parent birds (both roosters and hens) are housed in large flocks in sheds where they are free to move about but can not access outside. The roosters and hens produce fertile eggs that are collected daily and placed in an incubator until they are ready to hatch. Once they have hatched they are sexed. Males do not produce eggs and thus are not economically useful to the egg industry. They are all killed at one day of age either through gassing or instantaneous fragmentation (being minced alive). The female day old chicks are boxed up and dispatched to pullet farms where they are generally caged until they start producing eggs and they are moved to battery hen, barn raised or free range production systems.

Bromley Park is rather large and there are always a lot of workers so there was not really much opportunity to hang around long. At first we were not even going to get out of the car, I just wanted to show everyone what I refer to as the ‘factory farm village’ but sometimes opportunities present themselves. We went past a shed that you could drive right up to and that had no workers around so we parked up and run up to the sheds just to have a look in the windows. Then it was back on track to the broiler farm.

Broiler farming is probably the least understood type of factory farming and is not really given much attention by animal rights activists. Up to 60,000 chickens are kept in large sheds from one day of age until they are six weeks old; at this time they have reached slaughter weight and they are collected (harvested) and sent to be killed. This is the fate of over 82 million chickens every year. Aside from the fishing industry chicken meat farming easily kills the most individuals every year in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The broiler farm we were going to visit does not have a house on site but we suspected that the neighbour across the road worked at the farm. When we arrived there was a ute in the driveway which was both good and bad. It meant that the sheds would be unlocked but it also meant that someone was there and that we would not have much time to have a look. We entered to first shed and were hit with the strong smell of ammonia, a wall of heat and the sound of thousands of two week old chicks. As we took in the sea of birds we noticed a figure slowly moving towards us with a bucket. It was the neighbour collecting up the dead chicks. We stayed in there for a while as someone explained to us what we were looking at; even though the farmer had seen us he had to move slowly so as not to crush the chicks. When he got to us we left as he asked us too.

As we ran back to our cars he ran to his ute and sped up the road in front of us to block us in on the one way road. He was successful. He got out and started yelling at us; trying to find out why we were on the farm. We explained to him that we wanted to see what happened on chicken farms because the industry was so secretive but that we had left as soon as he asked us too. He was not impressed and refused to move. One of us with a 4 wheel drive managed to go around him but the other two cars were stuck. The owners wife and the neighbours wife came down as did two cattle farmers from up the road. We believe that the country has some kind of quick working phone tree.

I got out and tried to talk to the farmer in the middle of the road and get him to move. When he refused I tried to get in his ute and move it so that we could get around but unfortunately as I was about to put the ute in gear he ripped the keys out of the ignition.

Realising that we could not talk him round we had no choice but to wait while he called Tegel and the Police. While we were waiting we tried striking up a conversation with his wife she was not very nice so we talked to the cattle farmers instead. They were actually not too bad as far as farmers go and we talked about being vegan and how many of us were anarchists and what that meant. They actually seemed to understand even though they did not agree. We also talked about the Mike King visit to the pig farm and one of the cattle farmers disclosed that he used to be an intensive pig farmer but that he was not anymore. He looked a little concerned when I told him that I knew he was not anymore. (We had looked up and down his road previously and knew this was the only factory farm on the road).

After what seemed like a very long time the farm worker moved his ute after having talked to the Police. I think he realised that the Police probably did not think it was a priority and that we had done what we were required too which was leave when asked.

We met up with everyone down the road and see if everyone was in one piece and not too upset. Everyone said they were good and that they had learnt a lot from the visits and was keen to come again. And then that was the end of one of our more epic farm tours so far.

For more images click here.