As animal activists step up campaigns to secure footage from intensive livestock operations, farm groups are calling on Governments to take action against those who do so illegally.

Examples of illegal activity in recent times have included actions by activists to leave broken glass inside workers’ gum boots during a night-time trespass onto a Victorian piggery, and the discovery of illegally-placed concealed cameras inside the roof of a piggery in NSW.

The Animal Liberation group also gained national headlines in early April when it announced it will mount cameras onto remote-controlled aerial drones to spy on farms in future.

However farming leaders have labelled the actions by activists as a threat to the health and safety of livestock and are calling on Governments to take a strong stance against illegal farm invasions.

“Activists fail to realise they are compromising farm biosecurity by trespassing onto farms,” NSW Farmers’ president Fiona Simson said, 

“Activists also conceal to consumers the negative affect that their presence at night has on animals. It not only wakes the animals up but the unexpected activity is interpreted as predator-like which actually stresses the animals and this is the part captured on film.

“People need to know that these unwanted visitors can harm livestock. In a recent case 30 piglets were crushed by startled animals. In the most recent video, the intruder’s presence has already made the sows anxious and vocal in expectation of being fed. The film continues for eight minutes during which time the sows anticipation of being fed grows into a frenzy,” Ms Simson said.

Ms Simson said while aerial drone technology could be a helpful tool in the right hands, an object hovering over livestock also mimicked predator behaviour and had the potential to stress animals.

She said footage recently posted on animal activists’ websites failed to show the full story of farming – only highlighting animals distressed by an intrusion.

Ms Simson said as NSW law currently stands, trespass, nuisance or invasion of privacy can be difficult to prove.

The law was also yet to catch up with drone technology as it was not yet clear, if the drone is a plane and captured by aerial surveillance laws or equivalent to a person trespassing onto land.

“Farmers are law abiding citizens going about their business of growing our food. We are calling for strong laws against unwanted intruders which are accompanied by penalties which fit the crime,” she said.

In recent years several US states have passed laws that require farm workers to disclose any links to animal activist groups prior to gaining employment. In many cases the laws require footage of alleged cruelty to be verified as authentic by an

independent source, and proven not to have been obtained by illegal means, before it can be broadcast publicly.

The so called “ag gag” laws, a term coined by the New York Times in 2011, have created significant debate in the US. Opponents say the laws amount to strike against freedom of speech and remove one of the few effective means of exposing examples of animal cruelty, while supporters argue that whistleblowers have many existing legal channels to speak up and breaking the law with illegal invasions is not justified.