Animal activist's Melbourne home raided by police
Police have seized electronic devices from an animal activist's home after a search warrant was executed this week.
The leader of a prominent animal activist organisation has had his home raided this week following a search warrant executed by Victoria Police.
The Melbourne home of Chris Delforce, the executive director of Farm Transparency Project, was the subject of a search warrant during the morning of Tuesday, August 12.
Victoria Police confirmed computers, hard drives and mobile phones were seized from a Southbank residence as part of an ongoing investigation.
The seized items will be analysed by police. No arrests were made during the warrant.
In a post to social media site Instagram, Farm Transparency Project said the search warrant was in response to footage published by FTP earlier this year which was captured at 20 piggeries across Victoria.
The footage was captured as part of their Victorian piggeries 2025 campaign which followed the state government’s response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Welfare of Pigs in Victoria.
The police search warrant comes after Farm Transparency Project lost their Federal Court battle to publish a 14-minute compilation video of footage from inside a Victorian abattoir.
On Wednesday, August 13, the Full Court of the Federal Court ruled to allow an appeal from the Game Meats Company ordering a permanent restraint on the publication of footage, which was illegally obtained by activists group Farm Transparency Project last year from the Eurobin abattoir.
Justices Jackson, Burley and Horan heard the appeal on Friday, August 1, where GMC contended Justice Snaden made an error in his original judgment on December 19 by not granting an injunction to block the publication of footage.
In their ruling, the court granted copyright of the footage to GMC, while Farm Transparency Project (International) was ordered to destroy all copies of the footage.
The court also dismissed FTI’s cross-appeal regarding the amount of exemplary damages it was required to pay, meaning it owed $30,000 for general damages, and exemplary damages of $100,000 to GMC.
