Vegan protester Tash Peterson arrested for bloody Christmas protest
A vegan protester has caused havoc at a Perth butcher by a fiery protest that left onlookers shocked before two employees attempt a citizens’s arrest.
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A vegan protester has caused havoc for a bloody Christmas protest at a Perth butcher shop.
Controversial Australian vegan activist Tash Peterson, who has just returned from Europe, screamed at shoppers while pouring ‘blood’ on a shopfront of a Perth butchershop at Belmont Forum before two employees attempted a citizen’s arrest.
The video starts with Peterson yelling: “Is your Christmas going to be a Holocaust filled with the bodies of murder victims?”.
In confronting footage, which her boyfriend filmed, Peterson tells onlookers: “you have blood on your hands.”
“If you are not vegan you are responsible for the largest holocaust in history,” she said.
“You are responsible or their rape, torture, enslavement, and murder.”
“These are the victims of your Christmas meal.”
Shocked shoppers watch before two intervene and try to grab her.
Her boyfriend, Jack Higgs, who is filming, yells: “Get your hands off her”.
“Take your hands off her,” he repeats.
“We are making a citizens arrest for vandalism,” a man said.
One shopper defends Peterson, saying: “You’re allowed to do activism”.
Security then evicts Peterson from the store as she continues yelling.
In a follow-up video posted a few hours later, WA Police are filmed arriving at Peterson’s house asking for the shirt she was wearing during the protest.
“We’re placing you under arrest on suspicion of criminal damage,” a male police officer is filmed saying.
The home’s owner argued with police, saying they couldn’t enter the home without a warrant.
Peterson then provides them with the ‘shirt’ before she is placed in the back of an unmarked police car.
Peterson was charged with one charge of Criminal Damage and one charge of Disorderly Conduct.
The Perth-born activist is a controversial figure.
She has protested high-end stores smeared in blood and red liquid to call attention to what she sees as human abuse of animals.
On June 30 this year, she protested the high-end Fyre restaurant in Perth after chef John Mountain banned vegans from his establishment.
During the protests, the activist played loud audio of squealing pigs while shouting about an “animal apocalypse” as diners tried to enjoy their food.
Mr Mountain is suing Ms Peterson for defamation, claiming social media posts published on her Facebook and Instagram accounts had caused damages to his business.
“I constantly get daily death threats, and terrible emails and it’s just too much,” he told A Current Affair.
Meta has been contacted for comment.
Ms Peterson has also had a war of words with Piers Morgan on live television, with the British media personality condemning her use of the word “holocaust” in relation to animal rights.
“Why would you use the word holocaust? Holocaust is the mass extermination of more than six million Jewish people by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis,” he said in 2022
“Why would you use that very emotive language knowing it would offend people?”
The activist shot back it was a “factual statement” to describe the killing of animals for food as a Holocaust.
“If you look at the definition of a holocaust it is slaughter or destruction on a mass scale.
“Multiple holocausts have occurred throughout human history and non-human animals can be subjected to the same atrocities that humans can.”
-with Duncan Evans and Eli Green, NCA NewsWire
Originally published as Vegan protester Tash Peterson arrested for bloody Christmas protest
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