Up to 30 members of protest group Farm Transparency Project halted work at the Benalla abattoir after infiltrating the facility early on Thursday, April 13.
The group is calling for the industry to stop using gas chambers to stun pigs before slaughter, calling the practice absolutely horrific.
Chris Delforce is executive director of the Farm Transparency Project, which organised the protest.
He was arrested inside the facility early Thursday and has since been released on bail with the condition he does not go within 200m of the Benalla abattoir.
The Ensign spoke to him after his release, about 500m away from the facility.
“At about midnight 30 of us entered the Benalla slaughterhouse and chained ourselves onto the equipment,” Mr Delforce said.
“Some of us, including myself, were inside the gas chamber.
“A number of us were in the race, which is the passageway that leads pigs up into that chamber, and others were in the holding pens.
“We had a team also on the roof and a protest team outside.
“I was inside the gondola within the gas chamber which is where pigs are forced into to be lowered down into the gas.
“Police have come into the gondola cut through the chain that we’d wrapped around it, took me from inside the gondola and escorted me out.
“They then arrested me and took me to Benalla Police Station, charged me with trespassing and released me on bail.
“I am due to appear in court in September and I have a bail condition to not be within 200m of this facility, so I am about 500m from it now.”
Mr Delforce said the goal of the actions was that the group wants to see an end to the use of gas chambers for pigs in Australia.
“This is the industry’s most humane method they have for stunning pigs before slaughter and it’s absolutely horrific,” he said.
“Anyone who sees … footage will understand why we had to take this drastic action.
“We first exposed this nine years ago, nothing has changed.
“The industry has doubled down and are building bigger chambers the government is doing nothing, so we took it upon ourselves to physically shut this machinery down and if that’s what we have to keep doing so be it.”
Police were called to the Firth Rd, Benalla, property this morning and are still on scene.
It is the second protest this week in Benalla after a munitions factory was blockaded on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the abattoir said police had to climb into the chambers to remove protesters, which he said was “totally wrong”, and that the protesters had “behaved appallingly”, but provided no further comment.
A Victoria Police Spokesperson said it’s understood a number of people chained themselves to equipment at a business about 4am.
“Seven people were arrested at the scene,” the spokesperson said.
“As a result three men and four women between the ages of 23 and 53 from Melbourne, Tasmania and New South Wales were charged with trespass offences and bailed to attend the Benalla Magistrates’ Court at later dates.
“No one was injured during the incident.”