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The owner of a Young piggery has sought an apprehended violence order (AVO) against the executive director of Animal Liberation NSW after activists trespassed onto her property.
However, yesterday in the Young Local Court, the animal activist objected to the order saying evidence used in the application included comments he’d made to the media that were taken out of context.
On May 6, staff at Blantyre Piggery found six cameras and a recording device installed in the false ceiling of a farrowing house.
At the time, Edwina Beveridge said she believed the cameras were planted with the aim of collecting images for use in media campaigns designed to inflict reputational damage on the piggery.
The court heard Ms Beveridge sought the order against Mark Pearson of Animal Liberation NSW to prevent him from entering her property.
Representing himself, Mr Pearson, who is also the vice-president of the Animal Justice Party, said he objected to the order as he’d never met Ms Beveridge nor been to her property.
He said evidence relied on in the application indicating his involvement included misquotes in the media and comments on a website he had not made.
“Evidence relied on is not appropriated or substantiated,” he said.
“I just don’t see how people could rely on misquotes.”
Magistrate Peter Dare SC said Ms Beveridge objected to people entering her property with the intention of exposing her to ridicule.
“This woman just wants to be left alone,” he said.
“She doesn’t want people breaking onto her property and filming and making videos.”
Mr Pearson said there were other avenues to preventing this other than filing an AVO against him.
“I’m sure there are,” said Mr Dare.
“But sometime some farmer is going to catch someone on their farm and something nasty is going to happen.”
He adjourned the case for mediation between the two parties, saying it was rare for this to fail.
“I’ll be surprised if I see either of you back, but we’ll take it from there if we do,” he said.
Interim orders were put in place until the mediation.
Blantyre Piggery is one of two piggeries in Young recently targeted by animal activists, with two videos released using footage taken at Ean Polland’s Lansdowne Piggery.