A WHEELCHAIR user from Blakedown chained herself to the steering wheel of a lorry during an anti-dairy protest.

Louise Ryan, age 50, who has had walking difficulties since birth, joined protestors at the Müller depot near Stonehouse in Gloucestershire during a series of actions last week by Animal Rebellion, urging the government to encourage plant-based agriculture.

Louise, who has been vegan for 33 years, said: “I was with other activists in a lorry that was driven across the entrance to the depot and I then used a strong bicycle lock to attach myself to the steering wheel, resulting in no dairy delivery vehicles being able to leave or enter for five hours.

“The police arrived quickly and eventually cut the chain and removed me from the lorry, but after chatting to with them for that length of time they got to sympathise with me so much that they didn’t arrest me.

“Despite my disability I was determined to take part in the action because a plant-based future is vital to significantly reduce our environmental impact and free up vast amounts of land that could be returned to nature, reversing the decline in wildlife and combatting the climate crisis by extracting a huge amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“With regard to the dairy industry, we need to be aware that cows have to give birth in order to provide milk and that 60,000 male calves are put to death every year in the UK, at one or two days old, because they cannot be used for milk production.

“In addition, 150,000 dairy cows are slaughtered annually at about 6 years old, after their milk yields decrease, which is only one third of their natural lifespan".

Eight people were arrested following an animal rights protest at the factory near Stonehouse, which took place alongside three other protests.

Groups of Animal Rebellion supporters stopped and climbed onto company trucks outside facilities last week.

Others trespassed inside company facilities, climbing up onto milk silos and the sites' loading bays after the activists received no response from a letter delivered to Downing Street in August warning of these protests.

According to the group, the dairy blocks happened in Droitwich, Aylesbury, Severnside and Bridgwater.

A spokesperson for Müller UK & Ireland said: “All our supplying farmers must fully comply with the standards of the Red Tractor Assured Dairy Scheme (RTADS) - the UK’s national dairy farm assurance scheme - against which they are independently audited.

“It’s well known that dairy farmers who choose to supply us have been prohibited from euthanising bull calves for a number of years.

“We would like to stress that due to the professionalism and resilience of our employees and the whole dairy supply chain, supplies of milk were largely unaffected last week by the actions of these activists.

“Those who scaled fences with cordless power drills and knives intent on causing criminal damage to vehicles and equipment, endangering themselves and our employees, do not represent the 96% of adults in Britain who buy milk every week, and they are our priority.“