Dutch livestock sector to act against "animal extremism"

Agricultural organization LTO Nederland and the producer organization for pig farmers POV are planning to take action against animal rights organization. They will help farmers in filing charges against wat they call "animal extremism", De Gelderlander reports.

According to LTO, animal welfare organizations protest at cattle farms, break in, send threats to farming families, and put stickers with slanderous texts on meat in supermarkets. "It goes too far. They intimidate farmers and their families in various ways", LTO chairman Marc Calon said to the newspaper. According to LTO and POV, they are working with the national police to "map out all economic damage caused by extremism".

On Monday LTO already said it wanted to take action against Animal Rights, after the animal welfare organization posted a video online showing weak, bald and sometimes dead hens at Dutch poultry farms. These were "illegally obtained images", a spokesperson for LTO said to De Gelderlander. 

"Why should you do something about the abuses if you can also tackle the messenger", Erwin Vermeulen of Animal Rights said to the newspaper in a reaction. "We'll wait and see until this becomes a case, then we can tell our stories. That's what we want. We believe that it is legitimate to film at these locations."