Closing arguments in a landmark case brought by a Victorian abattoir against an animal advocacy charity were heard at the federal court of Australia on Tuesday.
The Game Meats Company of Australia is suing Farm Transparency Project, seeking to block publication of footage obtained during seven alleged trespasses at the company’s slaughterhouse in Eurobin in north-east Victoria between January and April.
The company, which slaughters goats, emus, deer and ostriches for domestic and export markets, is seeking a permanent injunction against publication of the footage.
The footage has been suppressed from public court documents.
During a five-day trial before Justice John Snaden, the court heard that Farm Transparency Project submitted footage with a cruelty complaint to the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry on 3 May. When DAFF failed to respond beyond an automated email receipt, the charity published extracts on its own sites and forwarded one extract to Channel Seven.
On 17 May, as 7News Border prepared to broadcast the extract, The Game Meats Company served temporary injunctions, preventing publication. But the news outlet reported: “Seven News has seen the video showing goats having their throats cut while they appear to be still alive.”
DAFF, meanwhile, forwarded the complaint to the meat company, the court heard.
The complaint, tendered in court, said the footage showed workers hitting goats, with some goats retaining consciousness during slaughter.
Karl Texler, a DAFF-employed veterinarian who works on-site at the abattoir to ensure animal welfare, testified that the footage “does not substantially demonstrate animal cruelty”.
“I do not believe that it shows any noncompliance with the Australian animal standard.”
In his submissions, the company’s barrister, Paul Hayes KC, said: “There is no industrial process known to man that doesn’t have flaws”. The abattoir had since improved its slaughter process and installed CCTV, the court heard.
The company is suing for trespass, breach of copyright, injurious falsehood and misleading and deceptive conduct, and has asked the court to order the Farm Transparency Project to permanently delete the footage.
Hayes told the court that the abattoir is commonwealth-accredited, with a $37m turnover in 2022. He said the charity’s executive director, Chris Delforce, and strategy and campaigns director, Harley McDonald-Eckersall, presented biosecurity risks by trespassing on farms and hold views “at the extreme end of the activist spectrum”, describing them as “illegal entrants dressed up like ninjas … roaming around at will”.
He argued the footage from the slaughterhouse amounted to “ongoing trespass” and said “it’s hard to imagine something more extreme” than the charity’s acts. He said refusing a permanent injunction “would invite anarchy”.
Hayes added that Australia’s constitutionally implied freedom of political communication “is not a licence to trespass”.
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Under privilege against self-incrimination, Delforce and McDonald-Eckersall told the court how they trespassed by entering under the abattoir’s fence, before installing pin cameras in its kill area. They denied their intent was to embarrass the Eurobin abattoir, saying their footage was part of their public “right to know” campaigns.
A Game Meats Company director, Eugene Tomasoni, told the court that the footage filmed at the abattoir showed “a brief aberration … just a small glitch in a process”. He said the company’s processes “run very well the majority of times”.
He said the negative publicity from the footage led to low staff morale, problems recruiting workers and a decline in production. An email from the abattoir manager to Tomasoni, presented to the court by the Farm Transparency Project’s counsel, Angel Alekov, said the company had an “ingrained culture based around ‘If we pass the external audit, then everything is OK’.”
The abattoir kills up to 960 goats daily, the court heard.
Alekov told the court the footage was “far from an aberration – the evidence suggests [the acts depicted] was a culture”.
Outside court, Farm Transparency Project’s lawyer, Vanessa Bleyer, said the request for injunction extend beyond the scope of “ag gag” laws that criminalise covert farm surveillance. Victoria introduced what it calls “some of the toughest” penalties for trespassing on farms, slaughterhouses and other agricultural businesses – with fines of up to $23,077.20 for individuals and up to $115,386 for organisations – in November 2023.
“At stake is whether footage … should be suppressed because of the way in which it was obtained,” Bleyer said.
Justice Snaden will deliver judgment in coming months.