The demonstration ended about 5.30am when three sheep were surrendered and the activists left peacefully, with no arrests or charges because the abattoir owner had not made a formal complaint. Farm Animal Rescue president Brad King, who was at the protest, said while his organisation had not co-ordinated or organised the protests, he had taken the sheep back to his sanctuary in Dayboro, north of Brisbane. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Mr King said the aim of the protest was to demand more transparency from the food industry and state government around how the animals are raised and slaughtered across the country. "We managed to save three animals, they're back at the sanctuary in a quarantine pen," he said.

"What we were asking for was a guarantee from the Queensland Parliament that they would start being more transparent about how the animal agriculture industry operates, but I don’t believe we have received this assurance. Loading "We want to build a responsible dialogue with the industry." Warwick Acting Inspector Jamie Deacon said RBTs had been set up along the activists' route from Brisbane and two had been charged with unlicensed driving. He added that police were prepared for the national day of action, which had caused concern within the local community.

"What we’re asking the landowners to do is secure their premises as best they can, that means closing their gates during the hours of darkness and contacting police ... if they see anything untoward," Acting Inspector Deacon said. Queensland Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said he had "had a gutful" of the protests, and claimed new on-the-spot fines being introduced by the state government would help police deal with them. "In addition to the fines we've also introduced a joint taskforce which will focus on the intelligence gather both from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and from QPS to make sure these extreme activists are followed wherever they go," Mr Furner said. "Fair enough if you protest within the law, but don't invade farmers' properties- we don't know where you've been, you might have been to Bali and are tramping foot and mouth disease into the farm." However, Southern Downs MP James Lister called for the activists to face jail time.

"This is the second time in two weeks that a fine family business in our electorate has been terrorised and it’s just not good enough," he wrote on Facebook. "(Premier) Annastacia Palaszczuk must show us that protecting our primary industries is more important to her than keeping green preferences in South Brisbane." Mr Furner said there was already jail time associated with trespass offences. The minister clarified that none of the activists who targeted the abattoir on Monday would face the new fines, as they had yet to be finalised. Mr Furner then offered the assembled journalists a sausage sizzle, featuring meat from a local producer.

Mr King said while some other activists had spread different messages and taken more extreme action, he and his group had remained outside the abattoir itself. "Every Queensland citizen has the right to be able to protest," he said in response to Mr Lister. "The people who decided to go inside and lock themselves on, they understand it is a prosecutable offence, but they think it is important for people to see the video from that facility." The protest action coincided with the one-year anniversary of the release of the documentary Dominion, which claims to feature footage from inside abattoirs, including Carey Bros.

Loading Meanwhile, at a farm in nearby Freestone, there was a confrontation between more animal rights activists and the landowners. The Facebook video was posted by Nicole Christensen and the farmer can be heard accusing the activists of scaring the cows and resulting in the animals injuring themselves on the wire fence. "Leaves by calves alone and stop disturbing them," the landowner said in the video. "You’re not going to steal my animals today by putting them out into the road."