• A landmark legal trial has begun this week in the Federal Court of Australia, to determine whether animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project will be restricted from publishing footage from a Victorian slaughterhouse operated by the Game Meats Company.
• In May, The Game Meats Company sought an urgent court order against Farm Transparency Project to censor the publication of hidden camera footage showing the slaughter of hundreds of goats at their slaughterhouse in northeast Victoria.
• Farm Transparency Project says that this lawsuit is an attempt by the slaughterhouse to hide its practices from the public, and that Farm Transparency will be defending consumers' right to know what happens to animals killed for food in Australia.

A landmark trial has begun this week in the Federal Court of Australia as a Victorian slaughterhouse, the Game Meats Company, takes legal action against animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project, to prevent them from publishing hidden camera footage of the slaughterhouse’s practices.

Farm Transparency Project is defending its right to publish the footage, which depicts animal handling and slaughter at the facility, and was captured during a covert investigation earlier this year. The group claims that the footage depicts illegal and cruel behaviour to animals by workers at the facility, as well as the standard practices employed in the slaughter of adult and infant goats. 

Executive Director of Farm Transparency Project, Chris Delforce, says that this trial is not just about their rights to publish this footage as an organisation. 

“Ultimately, this attempt by an animal slaughter facility to censor and gag footage of animal suffering and cruelty at their facility is an attempt to prevent consumers from making clear, informed decisions about what practices they are choosing to support.”

“We believe that the public have the right to know what happens to animals killed for food in Australia, and we will be fighting for that right in court. We think that it speaks for itself that the Game Meats Company is choosing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in an attempt to hide footage of their practices from the public. You have to ask, what are they so desperate to hide?” 

The trial is scheduled in the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne from today, Monday August 5th, until Friday August 9th. In an unusual move for public interest cases, the Court has refused requests from journalists and members of the public to live-stream the proceedings. 

Further information:

• Court file: https://www.comcourts.gov.au/file/Federal/P/VID417/2024/actions 
• FTP's crowdfunding campaign: https://chuffed.org/project/110125-defend-a-court-order-blocking-publication-of-cruelty-footage-from-game-meats-company-slaughterhouse 
• Previous media release: https://www.farmtransparency.org/media/58-animal-advocates-sued-by-slaughterhouse-block-cruelty-footage