A farmer who sprayed travellers squatting on his land with foul-smelling slurry mentioned he "merely had sufficient".
Pierre Richard used reeking liquid manure to cowl the travellers who had parked on his household farm in northeastern France.
The 37-year-old mentioned he determined to behave after police waved away his determined pleas for assist.
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Richard, who owns the farm close to the village of Le Syndicat within the northeastern Vosges area of France, labored with one other farmer to spray fertilizer in direction of the travellers, who gave chase.
The fifth-generation farmer instructed MailOnline: "I'd merely had sufficient.
"They need us to easily shut our mouths and allow them to squat on our land. However this 12 months I refused.
"Yearly lots of of gypsies come into our valley and take over our land. This 12 months I made a decision I needed to do one thing."
Richard mentioned the travellers had been on their option to a gypsy spiritual competition illegally occupied his farm and didn’t use an empty traveller website close by to as an alternative.
He continued: "They most well-liked to remain right here on my land. It's an attractive place, within the mountains, subsequent to a river, and with contemporary inexperienced grass.
"They arrived at about 8pm on a Sunday night time. After I heard they had been there I went down there, but it surely was too late. That they had damaged by means of the boundaries and arrange camp, lots of of them.
"The next day I went to the police, however they mentioned there was nothing they may do."
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Upon arrival, Richard claimed the travellers had destroyed a part of his land and had defecated within the river.
He continued: "Not solely do they spoil the grass, they spoil the land and the river. Their automobiles and caravans flatten the earth and make it tougher for the grass to develop.
"They usually go to the bathroom in every single place – in every single place other than of their caravans. It's disgusting. The river is a crucial fresh-water useful resource, however they depart it polluted with human waste.
"They open a water hydrant and depart it operating day and night time – utilizing lots of of litres of water, even when there’s a drought. My household have been farming this land for 5 generations and we’re not going to cease."
The travellers had been en path to the "Life and Gentle", a week-long spiritual gathering that pulls 30,000 Roma travellers from throughout France.
Nevertheless, close by neighbours have complained about problems with disruption, environmental air pollution and nuisance.
Dairy farmer Dominic Frenot, 52, instructed MailOnline: "Everybody on this space is sick to dying of the gypsies coming en masse and taking up our land. I’ve actual admiration for [Richard] for standing as much as them. He was very brave.
'They took over considered one of my prairies a few years in the past and brought on a number of harm."
Mayor of Syndicat, Pascal Claude, additionally shared his frustration, including: "That they had no proper to arrange camp there, however they compelled the barrier on the entrance of the land.
"The farmers and I are completely towards this. Not solely did they arrange camp on a protected pure land, it is usually a protected water supply."
The travellers, named in French native media because the Parti d'Alsace, claimed that the close by traveller website didn’t have enough capability for his or her 250-caravan convoy.
Their lawyer instructed the courtroom that the group had requested the native authorities to offer a website for them this summer time, however their demand had been ignored.
Maitre Laure Iognat-Prat mentioned: "The journey was deliberate; that they had contacted the Vosges [department authorities] originally of the 12 months to order a website. [But] They by no means obtained a response."