A farmer has been left 'frightened' and 'intimidated' after around two hundred vegan activists protested at her pig farm.
Campaigners from Meat the Victims UK stormed Sandilands Farm in Newark Road, Laughterton, at around 11am on Saturday March 2.
The protesters, who said they wanted to 'expose factory farming', stayed on the site for eight hours, with around 100 of them in the pig pens and another 100 at the roadside.
Farm owner Sylvia Hook said she had no idea why the Red Tractor assured farm, which has very high standards of welfare, had been targeted.
Ms Hook told the BBC Look North programme: “I was really, really frightened. I was scared and I was incredibly intimidated.
“The sows were very stressed initially with all the noise and the commotion, jumping up and down, squashing piglets, causing general havoc.
“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.”
She added: “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.”
The farmer has denied claims a dead piglet had been found by protesters at the farm, saying she could ‘categorically state’ it had been fine before the activists arrived.
Ms Hook said the likely scenario was that a stressed sow stood on it due to the commotion and noise.
The National Pig Association (NPA) is now liaising with the police and seeking legal advice following the protest.
The group said it is 'horrified' with the protest, which targeted a 'farming family running a legitimate business'.
