A rooftop stunt has put a small corner of northern Croatia on the map for all the wrong reasons. Twelve Greenpeace activists climbed onto the Veliki Pažut poultry farm near the Hungarian border and painted "Stop This Shit" across 500 square metres of roofing, the loudest yet in a widening campaign against one of the country's biggest planned livestock operations.
The farm, in the Međimurje region, is designed to raise 1.8 million chickens a year across seven vast sheds, each holding close to 40,000 birds at a time. It has just entered trial operations, and that's when the complaints started. Local residents report strong odours and manure being deposited inside the protected landscape of the Mura River. Greenpeace, Green Action (Zelena akcija) and Animal Friends Croatia (Prijatelji životinja) want the trials suspended and the operating permit refused, arguing the environmental assessments need a full rethink.
Location is the flashpoint. The complex sits roughly 320 metres from the Veliki Pažut Special Ornithological Reserve and close to the Mura-Drava-Danube Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO-recognised area of river habitats and Natura 2000 sites. Campaigners warn the volume of manure and waste could pollute soil, water and air in one of Central Europe's richest river corridors, while residents also flag noise and a surge in heavy truck traffic on quiet local roads. Animal welfare groups add concerns about disease risk and antibiotic use in intensive flocks.
This isn't an isolated fight. It's part of a national argument over industrial livestock projects, with more than 50,000 petition signatures collected and thousands marching in Sisak, Zagreb, Legrad and Apatija — and, campaigners say, some projects already shelved after public pressure. The next protest, "Northern Croatia stands against megafarms", is set for Koprivnica on Saturday 17 October at 10:30.
Why should travellers care? The Mura-Drava-Danube area is marketed as the "Amazon of Europe" — a slow-travel hotspot for kayaking, cycling the river routes and birdwatching. Anyone planning a trip to Međimurje or the Drava river valleys this year should know that a very local environmental fight is playing out around one of the region's protected natural assets, and that the outcome could shape what this landscape looks like for visitors in the years ahead.
