But Greenpeace said Federated Farmers was in the wrong, and owed New Zealand an apology.
After a weekend without drinking water in Gore due to elevated nitrate levels, the environmental organisation stepped up its efforts against the dairy industry.
Greenpeace defaced two Gore landmarks on Tuesday night, with a message calling out dairy farmers below the welcome sign.
The famous brown trout statue was also made to look as though it had died, in a move Southland Federated Farmers president Jason Herrick stated was low, and called for action.
"Last night’s [Tuesday’s] vandalism of the world-famous trout statue in Gore reinforces why these activists need to lose their status as a charity.
"I think it’s a total abuse of charitable status," he said.
Federated Farmers called for the revoking of Greenpeace’s charitable status in April, following the group’s occupation at the Taranaki Port.
Mr Herrick stated the night-time vandalism in Gore was an act of cowardice, and showed the organisation was not a charity at all.
"How can they be recognised as a charity when they’re breaking all kinds of laws trespassing on private property, vandalising public property and intimidating the community?"
Greenpeace spokesman Russel Norman said Federated Farmers needed to take a step back and examine their standards.
"What is more vandalism? Is it destroying pretty much all of the lowland rivers across Southland and Canterbury, poisoning the water for hundreds of thousands of people?
"[Or is it] sticking a couple eyes on a plastic trout in order to draw attention to the fact that Federated Farmers and Dairy NZ are poisoning drinking water and rivers across the country," he said.
Mr Norman said his group stood by the stunt, and thought it was the agricultural group who needed to front up.
"I reckon it’s time for Federated Farmers to issue a public apology to the people of New Zealand."
Stats NZ data shows a 1500% rise of dairy cattle numbers between 1990-2019 in Southland, from 38,000 to 636,000 over the same period.
Mr Norman said the evidence linking dairy to nitrate pollution was there.
"That’s why we go out and offer free nitrate testing, because rural and provincial New Zealand are being exposed to high levels in their drinking water, as a result of dairy intensification," he said.
