Vegans accused of killing piglets by accident after storming farm to cuddle them

The farmer accused the vegans of causing two piglets to be crushed to death. Photo / Instagram

A farmer has accused vegans of crushing two piglets to death after causing a stampede during their efforts to cuddle the newborn pigs.

200 vegans from the group "Meat the Victims" stormed a farm in Lincolnshire in order to protest against pork.

However, in their efforts to raise awareness about the "cruelty" of pig farming, they were accused of causing distress to the animals and inadvertently causing the death of two.

Farmer Sylvia Hook, from Sandilands Farm on Newark Road in Laughterton, said the vegans terrified her family and caused damage to the farm, the Daily Telegraph reports.

She told Lincolnshire Live: "About 50 of them all piled into a farrowing house, immediately the sows are jumping up and down.

"It's caused the death of two young piglets through being squashed and two other piglets I've had to be taken away to get up and running again."

The farmer added in an interview with BBC Look North: "The sows were very stressed initially with all the noise and the commotion, jumping up and down, squashing piglets, causing general havoc.

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Think about where you’re sat right now, reading this.⁣ ⁣ Now imagine there are prison bars around you. You can’t move from where you are right now. You can’t even turn around. You’re trapped. This is your life now. There’s no escape. ⁣ ⁣ This is what we do. This is what we do for bacon.⁣ ⁣ Sometimes there are no words. ⁣ ⁣ I’m so sorry. ⁣ ⁣ Today, Lincolnshire, the first ever #meatthevictims event in the UK. ⁣ ⁣ Footage: @kevyn269

A post shared by Earthling Ed (@earthlinged) on Mar 2, 2019 at 3:57pm PST

"They were picking piglets up, cuddling them – there was a lot of screaming going on. Piglets don't want to be cuddled. Then unfortunately, they were putting the piglets back in the wrong pens.

"Because it was such a long period of time we were not able to fulfil our caring duties to the animals. We could not get in to feed them as our barrow is the width of the passage."

Ms Hook added that the farm is a family-run business and is Red Tractor assured.

Meat the Victims denied that the activists caused the animals stress or that they were responsible for the death of the piglets.

One of the protesters, who calls himself 'Earthling Ed', commented: "You cannot love animals and kill them. You cannot love animals and pay someone else to kill them. You cannot love animals and commodify, butcher and mutilate their bodies. Farms are prisons for the innocent. They are death factories."

Lincolnshire Police said: "We are in attendance at Sandilands Farm, Newark Road, Laughterton, where a protest is taking place.

"We have a positive obligation to facilitate lawful peaceful protest and officers will remain on the scene until the protest has concluded."

Although there was a heavy police presence at the farm during the protest, no arrests were made.