Australia has seen a recent surge in vegans protesting against eating meat. But if they want to get their message across, they may be going about it the wrong way.

Has vegan activism gone too far?

Shocking footage shows an intense confrontation between 150 vegan activists and a single farmer as the group descended on his property in “meat the victims” T-shirts.

As hordes of vegans from the group Animal Activists Collective swarmed into the property, ducking under a fence, video shows the farmer yells at them to stay out.

The farm, where owner David McNamee lives with his family, is called the Lemontree Feedlot and Dairy. He called the incident, where dozens of activists streamed into his farm, taking photos of his cows and posed for group photos, extremely distressing.

A video posted by a member of the group shows a tense exchange, as activists enter the property after parking their many cars on the street outside.

The farmer can be heard screaming: “Get off my f**king country!”

“You’re hurting animals here. We’re here to show the truth of what you’re hiding!” one of the activists, Leah, can be heard saying.

The farmer continues to follow the large group of activists as they make their way across a paddock towards his feedlot, who are wearing matching white pants and T-shirts bearing the slogan “meat the victims”. On the back of their T-shirts reads the slogan “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”.

As the large group makes their way across the property towards the animals, drone footage shows Mr McNamee flanking the group while a ute circles the large group of protesters.

At the feedlot they film dead cows, which the distressed farmer says were shot humanely.

“How do you shoot a cow humanely?” one of the activists asks as others film him from behind.

Mr McNamee, said the invasion of his property over the weekend was “extremely distressing”.

“This incident has been extremely distressing for our family and our staff,” Mr McNamee told Queensland Country Life.

“We follow industry best practice, the safety of our staff and livestock are a priority — as well as adhering to the stringent biosecurity protocols for our industry.

“However, the actions over the weekend of those who illegally trespassed on our property put our family, staff and livestock at risk.

“It remains unclear why our family business has been targeted by this group of activists.”

He said loss of livestock does occur from time to time, and it is a sad reality of farming.

On Animal Activists Collective’s Facebook page, one of the group’s members tried to justify the ambush saying the group was “not trying to start a war with farmers”.

“We don’t want farmers to be out of work, we just want them to change what they’re farming,” Ryan MH wrote.

“We’re trying to show the general public what’s been hidden from them their entire lives, so they can decide for themselves.”

“This is the fastest growing social justice movement of our time. It’s our absolute duty as people who know these facts to present them to the public.

“Until we come to a fair agreement, we’re not going to stop entering farms.”

Queensland Police responded to a call about the protest at Lemontree Feedlot on Saturday about 11.45.

Officers from both Millmerran and Dalby attended the farm. A Queensland Police spokeswoman told news.com.au there were no threats, damage or injuries and no charges were laid.

A van driven by the activists had its tyres slashed by a rider driving a motorcycle without registration plates.

Investigations are ongoing.

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