At least two livestock trailers have been vandalised in Wagga Wagga and Goulburn recently, with an underground international activist group allegedly responsible for the attacks.
One of the victims is known by Deniliquin livestock carrier Brad McCallum, from McCallum Livestock Transport, who described the acts as “devastating.”
“It’s like visiting a tradesperson on the job and taking all their tools,” Mr McCallum said.
“Why take their livelihoods?”
In terms of impact, in his experience, Mr McCallum said the damage would be expensive.
“It would have cost them tens of thousands of dollars at least.
“Every day there’s $3000 to pay without including $2000 worth of insurance and then the amount to be spent on repairs.
“Then missing out on work is $5000 a day out of pocket.”
“He (the targeted carrier) could have easily lost $10,000 to $15,000 of work, which is his livelihood.”
Mr McCallum said he would like to see any perpetrators caught and punished.
He also questioned their reasoning for the attacks.
“The worst thing is the activists are uneducated about who they’re impacting. He’s just a carrier.
“They (activists) are happy criticising other people’s way of life, but if the activists and people from PETA wanted to stop meat production and the meat industry overnight, what would happen to the country?”
“The whole country would shut down, and we’d be starved in two weeks.”
“It affects everyone in the community. The country runs on the farming and transport industries.”
Mr McCallum also said the attacks deeply affect the local livestock carrier industry.
“People are unaware of how hard this is, financially and mentally, when the work is already hard enough as it is.
“The bloke it happened to is only in his mid-twenties, and he just started his own small business, and he’s got a family and mouths to feed.
“I don’t understand why they have to take it out on carriers.
“If people want to be vegetarian, that’s fine, but if they want to protest, there are better ways.”
NSW Farmers board member Alan Brown said the crimes were a scourge on Australian agriculture and those responsible must be brought to justice immediately.
“This is disgraceful behaviour, and it’s clear these activists have no respect for the law,” Mr Brown said.
“We strongly condemn these acts, and we will support any farmer who has been impacted by this senselessness.
“If these activists had any backbone, they would come and talk to us, so we could tell them how we safely and ethically produce livestock here in Australia. But instead they seem hell-bent on causing crime, chaos and fear, rather than finding the facts.”
In the wake of the attacks, Mr Brown called on all levels of government to take immediate action to protect farmers from increasingly dangerous activist tactics.
“This behaviour is extreme, illegal and must be stopped in its tracks before anyone ‒ or any animals ‒ get hurt,” Mr Brown said.
“These activist groups don’t know the first thing about animals or farming, and their activities pose a huge risk to everyone in the agricultural industry.
“Our governments have a duty to protect their people – so it’s critical they do everything in their power to ensure attacks like this never happen again.”
The NSW Farmers Association supports the NSW Police Rural Crime Prevention Team in working with rural communities to solve and prevent crime. Information about crimes can be reported to CrimeStoppers on 1800 333 000.
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