Animal rights activists scale roof of livestock mart

Several dozen Animal Justice Project activists climbed up to the roof of Darlington Farmers’ Auction Mart in the early hours of Saturday morning and vowed to remain there to “make their message heard”.

They displayed banners which read, ‘end animal agriculture’ and ‘farming violates the rights of animals’.

Industry leaders, representatives from DEFRA and around 5,000 beef farmers were expected to attend the event, which is the largest technical beef event in the UK.

A spokesperson for the animal rights group said “cow poo” was sprayed over activists and police in a “bizarre twist”, while “another farmer used a JCB digger to reach protestors on the roof and chase them around, resulting in an activist falling and dislocating her finger”.

A spokesperson for Animal Justice Project said: “Today we send a clear message to the agriculture industry, at a poignant site where hundreds of thousands of animals are bought and sold each year like commodities, that animals have rights and current farming practices infringe on these day in, day out within the dairy, meat and egg industries.

“A staggering 1.2 billion animals are killed in this country each year and our investigations, along with many others, highlight the gross pain and suffering that these animals go through.

“Today is not a celebration of the ‘Best of British’, but a farming event that glorifies the exploitation and killing of animals - an industry that has yet to be held accountable.

“This is fundamentally wrong and unjust.

“The urgency of this situation for animals is made even more grave bearing in mind that animal agriculture is the primary driver of climate change.

“Animal agriculture has no future and we are here to show that events such as today must not continue without being challenged.

“There is no future in animal agriculture. The future is vegan.”

The roof activists were arrested and later released.