‘Bloody Friday’: Organiser recalls protest where nearly 1500 sheep were slaughtered in an Invercargill street

Southland farmers protested in 1978 by slaughtering almost 1500 sheep in Invercargill's business district. File photo / Rowena Duncum

On this day in 1978, a group of Southland farmers took to the streets of Invercargill and slaughtered almost 1500 sheep. Today on The Country, the man behind the protest, Syd Slee, reflects on the day that shocked the nation and the reasons behind the protest that became known as “Bloody Friday”.

Even though it is now 45 years ago, Syd Slee remembers “Bloody Friday” like it was yesterday.

On June 9, 1978, around 300 farmers protested continuing freezing works stoppages and strikes by letting nearly 1500 starving ewes loose in the centre of Invercargill.

Traffic came to a standstill as chaos ensued, with confused sheep entering shops and running all over the business district.

After an hour, the sheep were herded from Dee Street to Victoria Street where they were slaughtered at a pre-determined vacant station.

Although the protest was shocking, the farmers had their reasons, Slee told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.

In 1978 there had been 116 freezing works disputes over six months, which meant farmers couldn’t get their stock killed, he said.

In the first half of the year, there were only nine days in which all four Southland freezing works were in operation at the same time.

As a result, farmers couldn’t afford to feed these extra sheep.

“They were dying - we think they were dying at roughly a thousand a day and they should’ve been killed three or four months ago,” Slee said.

“That’s what frustrated farmers - we didn’t like to see our sheep starving.”

On top of this, many parts of Southland suffered a crippling drought in 1978.

“They were very, very frustrating times.”

Farmers felt that nobody was listening to their plight so Slee, along with Te Anau farmer Owen Buckingham, decided to take action.

“We organised the dispute ... on Tuesday and we actually had it on Friday.”

Authorities were initially told the plan was that protestors would drive their trucks through the city and drop the sheep off at the Lorneville sale yards.

However, that was never Slee’s intention.

Each farmer was instructed to bring 10 thin old ewes to town to be let loose on Dee Street and slaughtered at the Victoria Ave site.

During the protest, some of the sheep were so old and weak that they actually collapsed and died in the street. Others were so hungry they ate anything they could find, including shrubbery.

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Slee said the atmosphere was tense.

“It was very, very serious. We were desperate.”

Despite this, he said the slaughter went smoothly.

“We did it all as humanely as you could and it all happened within an hour, which is pretty well organised.”

After the clean-up, the police - who had been in attendance the whole time - pulled up in a large van and Slee knew he was going to be arrested.

“We more or less expected it. We were prepared to take what came to us.”

Slee and Buckingham were blacklisted by the freezing works but they took it in their stride.

“We had so much support. Farmers rang and said we could sell your stock for you, or we can send down them to Lornville ...

“So, the blacklisting didn’t really work very well. In fact, I think it worked against the unions because people felt sorry for us.”

All the carcasses went to the abattoir to be made into blood and bone.

“They agreed to take them - which was good of them - and my brother [and I] just carted them down there.”

Slee acknowledged that such a protest would be unpalatable to urban people.

“It sounds pretty awful to town people what we did but believe me, we really cared for our animals”.

Now 80 years old, he said he wouldn’t repeat the process these days.

“There are other ways of doing things - you can have a protest without what we did - but that’s what happened at the time.”