Animal activist Tash Peterson has claimed that she was arrested and fined in Queensland for being a “public nuisance”. The outspoken vegan posted a series of videos to Instagram on Sunday from Surfers Paradise.
The first appeared to depict Peterson approaching pedestrians while holding a sign actively encouraging them not to eat meat. It shows her being met by two police officers who place her under arrest, claiming she had been a “public nuisance” the previous evening. In the clip, Peterson claims she is “just talking to people” while being escorted to the nearest police station.
In a second video, the activist said the earlier incident referred to her presence at a reptile stall that had been offering children photos with “animal slaves”. “I spoke up and said, ‘We shouldn’t use animals for entertainment, this is disgusting animal abuse’ . . . and some parents got really, really angry by my words and started accusing me of filming their children,” Peterson said.
Peterson posted a third video depicting the events, claiming the “situation quickly escalated”. She claimed the parents “got physical”. Peterson said she was given an infringement notice by local police that stated she was required to vacate Surfers Paradise for the next 29 days. She believed she hadn’t officially been charged with a criminal offence.
“When I asked police what evidence they had, I was told they had received multiple complaints from members of the public, including a claim that I had made a seven-year-old child cry,” Peterson said. The activist said that she had been fined $1001 for alleged “public nuisance and disorderly near licensed premises”.
