A notorious animal rights activist has detailed how she was targeted in two separate attacks within an hour – claiming the perpetrators were attempting to suppress the truth about ‘speciesism’.
Tash Peterson was filming her boyfriend Jack Higgs to raise awareness about animal cruelty outside a McDonald’s in Perth, when a teenage girl threw a drink at her head.
Just an hour later, the couple were dining at vegan restaurant Lord of The Fries when another woman threw a drink at Ms Peterson, who claims she was then set upon by several others after she went outside confront the woman.
A distressed Ms Peterson took to social media on Sunday to express her anger about the incidents.
‘They are direct responses to my activism and to me unapologetically being who I am: someone who refuses to stay silent about the exploitation and murder of non-human people,’ she wrote.
‘Let’s be clear- these actions are not just attacks on me; they are attempts to suppress the truth about speciesism and the industries profiting from the enslavement of animals.
‘The question remains: Why are so many people so angry at those who simply advocate for the rights of non-human people?’
Vegan activist Tash Peterson (pictured) was filming her boyfriend when a teen threw a McDonald’s drink at her head from behind
The couple filmed the first incident, where the teen was captured throwing a McDonald’s drink at Ms Peterson from behind before fleeing down the street.
The drink drenched the back of her clothing and hair.
‘What the f***!’ a shocked Ms Peterson exclaimed.
‘Completely soaked,’ Mr Higgs was heard saying off camera.
‘That’s the drink they threw at me,’ Ms Peterson said while pointing at the split drink and ice on the ground.
In a separate video, the couple recalled how they were dining Lord of The Fries in Northbridge an hour later when a woman ‘stormed in, shouted ‘are you Tash Peterson?”.
‘(She) threw her drink on me,’ an emotional Ms Peterson explained to her Facebook followers.
An emotional Ms Peterson (pictured) recounted what happened after a woman poured a drinkin a second incident an hour later
‘So I reacted and came out and then five people came on top of me and like, ripping my hair.
‘And Jack came in to help me and got f***ing punched.’
The activist filmed from the hospital where Mr Higgs was undergoing tests because he was punched in the left side of his head.
When recounting the incident, the protester clarified that it was about three or four people who came over the top of her to pull her away from the woman once she was outside to retaliate.
‘All I remember was just looking down at the ground because, obviously, I was in defence mode,’ she said.
The couple explained that Mr Higgs came out to remove the woman on Ms Peterson, who was the woman who started the fight by throwing the drink.
And that’s when Mr Higgs was punched.
‘Apparently it was her brother because he kept saying to Jack ‘you punched my sister”, Ms Peterson said.
The activist (pictured) is known for many scantily-clad protests
‘Obviously Jack didn’t do that, he was just trying to get her off me.
‘There were a lot of drunken people around and that’s probably why this happened.
Ms Peterson said the police arrived shortly afterwards and claimed ‘they’re investigating’ both incidents.
The couple are also hopeful of obtaining CCTV of the second assault, which left Mr Higgs with blurry vision and a ‘throbbing’ headache.
‘It could have been worse if he got the centre of the temple,’ he said.
Ms Peterson, who is for her scantily-clad protest stunds, is no stranger to controversy.
Her antics have led police and policymakers in WA to describe her as ‘Australia’s biggest pest’.
Ms Peterson has copped numerous fines for her semi-nude demonstrations and protests in designer stores, restaurants and supermarkets.
It’s been a challenging few months for Ms Peterson after she was ordered to pay $280,000 to a vet she accused of ‘eating (her) own patients’ three years ago.
Ms Peterson stormed into the Perth-based Bicton Veterinary Clinic in September 2021 to accuse its owner Dr Kay McIntosh of ‘enslaving’ two pet birds.
In a judgment handed down by the Supreme Court of Western Australia on November 25, Chief Justice Peter Quinlan ruled that the pair had used ‘provocative and inflammatory’ language towards Dr McIntosh and her husband Andrew.
In August, Ms Peterson pleaded guilty to two trespass and disorderly behaviour charges for two separate stand-offs at Fyre restaurant in the northern Perth suburb of Connolly last year.
Ms Peterson was banned from leaving Western Australia due to a six-month community-based order issued by a magistrate in Joondalup Magistrates Court, and was also hit with thousands of dollars in fines.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Ms Peterson for comment.
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