Three Wellington animal rights activists were arrested this morning after locking themselves to a truck from a local factory farm. The truck belongs to Premier Bacon company, which intensively farms and slaughters pigs in Carterton.

Protestors locked themselves to the truck while the driver was making deliveries to a central city cafe. About twenty other protestors also joined the action, urging the large numbers of spectators and passers-by to go cruelty free this christmas.

More than 800,000 pigs are farmed for slaughter in New Zealand each year. Over 600,000 of these pigs are confined in factory farms, where they have no access to fresh air, sunlight or open space. They are housed in either individual crates or crowded concrete pens. At the end of this the pigs are taken to a slaughterhouse, where they are shot with a electric bolt gun and then killed.

After about 40 minutes of being locked to the truck, police cut the activists from the truck and arrested them. The two protesters locked to the front of the truck have been charged with 'disorderly behaviour' and 'unlawfully interfering with a motor verhicle', and the third, who was locked on top of the truck, was charged with 'disorderly behaviour' and "unlawfully gets upon vehicle".

10 police from the Strategic Response Group turned up and assaulted two people holding placards, but they did manage to not throw protestors against granite walls this time.

All arrestees have now been released. [ Photos ]