Peter V’landys questioned over animal welfare footage in ABC defamation case
The boss of Racing NSW is suing the ABC for defamation over a TV story aired last year, which alleged former racehorses were being carted off to slaughterhouses.
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A fired-up Peter V’landys has accused a racehorse activist who provided the ABC with abattoir footage of calling coronavirus a “saviour” because it kills humans, a court has been told.
The boss of Racing NSW is suing the public broadcaster for defamation over a TV story aired on 730 last year, which alleged former racehorses were being carted off to slaughterhouses in NSW and Queensland.
Mr V’landys’ lawyers have argued the ABC made a decision not to show their client undercover videos of the facilities before his sit-down interview - in which he said he had no knowledge of the practice taking place in NSW - was intercut with the graphic footage.
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The Federal Court was told on Wednesday some of the footage aired on the ABC was obtained by an organisation run by Elio Celotto, who is the campaign director of the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses.
During heated questioning by the ABC’s barrister Sandy Dawson, SC, Mr V’landys told the court he gave Mr Celotto no “credence” and questioned why he hadn’t contacted authorities during their two-year investigation about the alleged animal welfare offences instead of going to the media with the footage.
“What concerned me, and still concerns me, is why they didn’t report it to the relevant authorities and let the cruelty to those horses continue for a further period,” Mr V‘landys said.
“In my understanding, the private investigations are always commissioned by Mr Celotto.
“It was disgusting cruelty to the horses that was used for political and agenda purposes rather than stopping the cruelty at its source.“
Mr V‘landys accused Mr Celotto of having an agenda to shut down the racing industry and that he held “extremist” views about animal welfare.
“Mr Celotto in a newspaper article says his objective is to end the racing industry, that’s his prime objective,“ Mr V’landys said.
“Mr Celotto is very much an extremist, I mean on his Facebook page he states that COVID is a saviour because it kills human beings, because human beings kill animals, so if that’s not an extreme view Mr Dawson I don’t know what is.
“He says that COVID is a saviour and that it’s fantastic it’s only killing human beings because it saves all other living animals.”
Mr V’landys told Mr Dawson that the ABC failed to show him footage of the Meramist Abattoir in Queensland - where he holds no sway over as Racing NSW’s boss - before the program aired.
“It did not show me the Mermist video and, like it or not Mr Dawson, people viewed that as that I had seen the video, that’s the response I got, that I was responsible for the Meramist cruelty, which I am not,“ he said.
Only hours after the program went live in October 2019 – just before Mr V’landys was due to take the reins of the Australian Rugby League Commission and before The Everest race – a “firestorm” of online abuse began to pour into Racing NSW’s general email account directed at him and even his children, the court previously heard.
“I hope your kids get cancer and die slowly you filthy low life c****s,” Mr V’landys’ barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, said one of the emails read.
Another stated Mr V’landys was a “spineless lair” and a “f****ing creep”.
The hearing continues.