Three Activists from Animal Liberation Victoria Inc. (Action Animal Rescue Team) flew to New Zealand to participate in Wellington Animal Action's Third National Conference on Animal Rights (held in Wellington April 13, 14 and 15th).

The conference (organised by Mark Eden) culminated in a huge Easter Sunday battery hen demonstration in front of GOLDEN GATE POULTRY FARM north of Wellington. While 50 protesters stood with banners in front of the farm on a busy tourist highway, undercover rescues teams accessed the unlocked sheds and rescued 10 hens and took dramatic video footage and photographs of the appalling conditions.

It was a brilliant and spectacular sunny day in beautiful New Zealand, yet the hens were crammed in tiny old wire cages in dark dingy totally enclosed sheds, with piles of feces under their cages. Many of the hens suffered severe featherloss and eyrthema (skin inflammation) which causes intense pain when this skin touches wire.

GOOD NEWS... The rescue saved 10 lives and received incredible national media coverage. The first two photos pictured below were featured in color on the front page of THE EVENING POST in Wellington (article to follow) as well as many other articles in newspapers throughout both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. This coverage led to both myself and Sandra Carrey (a New Zealand activist) being interviewed on the HOLMES SHOW which is New Zealand's top rating national current affairs program. We were lead story on Easter Monday, April 16. (This is available to view online I'm told, but haven't seen it.. address is: ) importantly, while we were being interviewed, undercover footage taken by Diana Simpson inside the sheds was shown national throughout New Zealand. This was all followed by talk back radio on prime time drive shows. A couple weeks prior there was also national coverage in New Zealand when news broke about the "maceration machine" that liquifies thousands of male chicks in seconds. Workers at the hatchery were appalled to see the new machine in operation. The machine is similiar to a giant blender which reduces the babies to pulp in seconds (this is part and parcel of the egg industry - whether battery, barn-laid or free range eggs... males don't lay eggs.) So the two poultry stories caused quite a stir in this agricultural based country.

Wanted to add what a tremendous pleasure it was to work with the New Zealanders... grassroots at the peak! The more international actions/rescues we can get happening the better. for animals, patty

1) ROUGHNECKED - Animal rights activists say chickens have been badly defeathered from rubbing up against the walls of their cramped wire cages. Picture: Patty Mark 2) ANIMAL LIBERATOR - Australian animal rights activist Patty Mark takes a chicken from Golden Gate Poultry Farm near Pauatahanui yesterday afternoon. Picture: Diana Simpson

At least ten chickens flew the coop of Pauatahanui"s Golden Gate Poultry Farm yesterday in the arms of animal activists protesting the cramped conditions of battery hens.

Animal Action spokesman Mark Eden said the chicken heist went off without a hitch. The birds had been relocated to "secret safe houses" in the Wellington area.

Keeping the fugitive hens' identities secret may prove more difficult due to injuries caused by their time on the battery farm, he said.

Many of the birds were badly defeathered due to the small wire cages in which they were kept. Birds had also had their beaks clipped because the lack of space made them aggressive and inclined to attack each other.

Mr Eden said free-range birds could live for 10-15 years, but battery hens were usually killed after 18 months because they burnt out under the

He said about 50 activists from New Zealand, Australia and the United States protested outside the farm on SH58 after an animal rights conference in Wellington on the weekend. Police attended the protest's start and ending but seemed unaware of the chicken thefts, he said.

Golden Gate co-owner Denise Bennik said they would talk to police today, but were still deciding what action to take over the break-in and theft. She said the farm had been singled out because of its location on a highway.

Hen House Eggs Network, which Golden Gate is part of, could not be contacted for comment.

Mr Eden said the activists would fight any charges in court. The thefts were illegal but animal groups believed they were morally right.

For more information about the Action Animal Rescue Team, contact Patty Mark at amag@ihug.com.au