An irate farmer sprayed a group of Greenpeace protesters with manure after they violated a court order to oppose fracking on the farmer’s property, including Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson and her sister Sophie.
Emma and Sophie were reportedly filming a parody of “The Great British Bake Off” for Greenpeace on a farmer’s property in order to “show the government that we will not allow fracking to scar our countryside and fuel yet more climate change.”
When the enraged farmer approached the activists on his tractor, according to the DailyMail, the protestors reportedly snuck onto the land and climbed over a gate to set up on the land, which was to be used for fracking.
The farmer drove his tractor up to the protesters when he saw them on his property and tried to shoo them away. He then maneuvered the tractor around the demonstrators and started showering them with manure.
The protesters can be seen yelling at the farmer to stop in a video of the incident, but despite their cries, the farmer ignores them and keeps circling about them. The man continues to spray them with foul fluid. Thompson and the others are left covered in foul-smelling manure after he repeatedly circles the gathering before stopping and driving away.
“The stink was temporary – unlike the impact of fracking on this community if Cuadrilla get their way,” Kate Styles, a local cake store owner who participated in the protest, told the Telegraph.
Francis Egan, the chief executive of Cuadrilla, the firm in charge of fracking the farmer’s land, issued a statement.
“Celebrities from London trespassing on a Lancashire farmers’ land, preventing him from working whilst lecturing us on where the UK should get our natural gas is beyond ridiculous,” Egan said.
A statement regarding the manure incident was also released by the regional police. “We were this morning made aware of a protest on land at Plupton Hall Farm at Little Plumpton. A local neighborhood patrol attended and spoke to a representative of the protestors to establish their intentions. It was not felt necessary or proportionate to maintain a police presence at the site, but resources are available to attend again if necessary,” the police spokesman said.
Watch the video below:
https://youtu.be/yHXWfkdp65o
Sources: AWM, Independent, Telegraph