‘Arrogant’ vegan who stormed a piggery with 100 militant activists proudly boasted about terrorising a cattle farmer and his family DAYS before fronting court
- It’s her fourth charge of unlawfully entering farming land in just one year
- She was charged after entering a piggery in December with 100 vegan activists
- Leah Ava Whetton claimed she was ‘saving animals from a bad situation’
- Judge said she isn’t remorseful and she was fined $400 with no conviction
A vegan activist who joined 100 protesters as they broke into a farm and grabbed piglets ‘suckling from their mothers’ has been blasted for her ‘arrogance’ in court.
Leah Ava Whetton donned a ‘Meat the Victims’ t-shirt when she stormed the Glasshouse Country Farms in Queensland, in December last year.
Police were able to identify her as taking part after the the group shared photographs of the incident to Facebook.
Whetton had entered a ‘reluctant’ guilty plea in writing, Sunshine Coast Daily reported.
Whetton was one of more than 100 vegan activists to storm a Queensland farm in December
On Wednesday, Maroocydore Magistrates Court heard on how it was her fourth charge of unlawfully entering farming land in one year.
Days before fronting court Whetton boasted about storming a cattle farm, much to the alarm of the local farmer and his family.
‘What we ‘vegans’ do is simple – we think of how those individuals would have felt. The ones who were shot & those who witnessed their family being shot. How much sadness & fear they felt,’ Whetton’s Instagram post read.
The magistrate said Whetton’s letter to the court showed no remorse and claimed she was ‘rescuing or saving animals from a bad situation’
The incident took place last month, when more than 150 vegans stormed a Queensland cattle farm as part of their fight for ‘animal liberation’.
Shocking footage of the protest showed a distressed farmer look on as activists entered the property at Millmerran, 75 kilometres west of Toowoomba.
Last month more than 150 vegan activists trespassed onto a cattle farm in Queensland to fight for ‘animal liberation’ – wearing the same outfits as the December piggery protest
Lot feeder David McNamee later told Daily Mail Australia the vegans’ actions were distressing for his family and had put his livestock at risk.
The protesters donned white overalls covered in black shirts that read: ‘Meat the Victims’, similar outfits worn in the Glasshouse Country Farms protest from December.
This week magistrate Matthew McLaughlin said he was not impressed with Whetton’s attitude and said her letter to the court regarding the piggery protest showed no remorse.
In the letter Whetton said she was ‘rescuing or saving animals from a bad situation’.
Magistrate McLaughlin also pointed out there was no evidence the business acted unlawfully, and that Whetton showed ‘a real arrogance towards the law.’
Farm owner David McNamee tried to get protesters to leave, before he was forced to call the police
Wearing white coveralls covered in black shirts that read: ‘Meat the Victims’, the protesters cut across the Lemontree Feedlot land as the farmer chases after them
‘You’re just a bunch of people deciding they will trespass onto land and stick their nose in somebody else’s business,’ he said.
‘I accept you meant well… but that’s not the point.’
The magistrate suggested Whetton should get a job with the RSPCA, police or become an investigative journalist if she wanted to help animals.
She was fined $400 and a conviction was not recorded on this occasion.
Leah Ava Whetton was among about 100 protesters police identified in social media photos and videos the group shared after they stormed Glasshouse Country Farms in December last year
In February this year, the Caloundra Magistrates Court fined Whetton after she unlawfully entered the same piggery in December 2017.
The ruling comes two weeks after Jamila Riley, 22, was given a slap on the wrist for taking part in the same protest as Whetton.
Riley was charged with unlawfully entering farmland but didn’t receive a conviction.
She was fined $150 and given a stern warning by Magistrate Rod Madsen, also in Maroocydore Magistrates Court.
In February this year Whetton was fined after she unlawfully entered the same piggery in December 2017