A vegan activist has been blasted for a "vile" stunt that saw her attack a small business and accuse them of "blatant slavery" at a Western Australian children's festival. Photo / Facebook
A vegan activist has been blasted for a "vile" stunt that saw her attack a small business and accuse them of "blatant slavery" at a Western Australian children's festival. Photo / Facebook
A vegan activist has been blasted for a "vile" stunt that saw her attack a small business and accuse them of "blatant slavery" at a Western Australian children's festival.
Well-known vegan activist Tash Peterson filmed herself confronting children's entertainers who had brought ponies to the Funmantle children's holiday festival in Fremantle on Saturday.
Footage shows the 27-year-old screaming "animal abuse" as children interacted with the animals and then continued to follow staff as they tried to walk away.
Peterson calls the "unicorn" interaction a blatant example of animal cruelty, saying the ponies had been subjected to slavery and asking the group if they'd like to be paraded around like an object.
"They do not want to be here - objectified and paraded around like a unicorn," she said.
A vegan activist has been blasted for a "vile" stunt that saw her attack a small business and accuse them of "blatant slavery" at a Western Australian children's festival. Photo / Facebook
Police arrived to de-escalate the situation.
Ponies For Any Occasion owner Meg Freeman took to Facebook to apologise to the families who witnessed the incident, blasting Peterson for taking photos of children from her social media page and sharing it to her own.
"I'm so sad and disgusted that this vile person has taken my photos illegally from my business page which contains photos of my clients children who I ask permission to share, and used it on her disgusting pages," she wrote.
One of the ponies. Photo / Tash Peterson / Facebook
Freeman claimed Peterson's followers "tried to destroy" her business by leaving false reviews, adding she has received "endless abusive texts, Facebook messages, WhatsApp messages and phone calls".
"Everyone has the right to have their own beliefs and opinions but no one has the right to abuse anyone and definitely not in front of children," Freeman said.
"This person is well known for hurting many businesses, families and children. It's not about saving the animals it's about her fame, her $$$ she is making out of her protests. She is making true vegans look bad in my eyes."
Peterson has since responded online to explain her side of the story and her interaction with police.
"These innocent slaves are being subjugated and demeaned to create profit for their slave owners to entertain children," she wrote.
"Dressed as unicorns - painted nails, braided hair, flower necklaces and shaved love hearts into their body hair.
"It is obvious that these beautiful creatures are being objectified and their freedom stolen from them for someone else's entertainment."
Unlike other protests of Peterson's, she said this one was unplanned and came about on a casual day out with her boyfriend.
According to The West Australian, Freeman said her animals were rostered on rotation, so would go for weeks without working.
