A group of travellers in France’s Vosges region learned this the hard way after setting up camps with 400 caravans in two towns.
Polite requests failed and the tensions escalated to breaking point when farmers took matters into their own hands – unleashing slurry on the fields.
They argued they were not just protecting their harvest, but defending a Natura 2000 nature reserve containing drinking water catchment areas.
On one side, a farmer said he received death threats. On the other, a traveller named only as Olivier said the group had rights but no officially designated land. Calling the farmers cowboys, he said his offer to manage water and electricity had been refused.
Photographer Loic Madre was in the town of Syndicat when the farmers started their targeted deployment of liquid manure.
He said: ‘It was difficult to negotiate with the travellers; they refused to listen. The farmers received no support from the local authorities or the police. So they handled it on their own, as you can see in the images.’
The footage shows several travellers chasing after the tractors, trying to get into the cabs to stop the olfactory onslaught.
At one point the travellers formed a human barrier to protect their caravans from the slurry and there were scuffles with farmers in the run-up.
As the stand-off escalated:
- There were late-night noise disturbances
- Two electricity workers were injured while repairing a transformer that had been deliberately damaged
- The mayor considered cancelling Bastille Day celebrations
- A landowner took the case to court
The farmers said they aimed to make living conditions so unbearable for the trespassers so that they would leave.
Their pungent strategy eventually proved effective.
The travellers were fined €1,500 in legal costs and relocated within a few days, leaving behind a badly damaged field according to Vosges Matin.
The footage has proved popular on X with one user, Brugade Jean Michel, saying: ‘The sprayed liquid is pig manure. The smell is so strong and long-lasting that the air is unbreathable for several days.’
