News & Media: Animal rights group defiant against Meat and Livestock Australia's immediate take down notice
Animal rights group defiant against Meat and Livestock Australia's immediate take down notice
Meat and Livestock Australia have issued an immediate take down notice to an animal rights group that have used footage from their 'Operation Boomerang' campaign alongside graphic footage from a slaughterhouse.
With 'Operation Boomerang' becoming the most complained about commercial in Australian history, Aussie Farms titled their video: 'Hilarious behind the scenes clip from new Aus Day Lamb ad'.
The almost-two minute online video opens with SBS newsreader and newly appointed 'lambassador', Lee Lin Chin, saying "commence Operation Boomerang".
The video then cuts to footage from 2014 showing lambs being slaughtered at an abattoir without having been properly stunned first.
Aussie Farms founder Chris Delforce admits that while the footage is "quite confronting", it's hypocritical of MLA to tell animal rights activists to "have a sense of humour" about their campaign, but are unwilling to view his "parody" video through the same lens.
"They're on the back foot, they're on the defence," he told ninemsn.
"They would never show this kind of footage, but we believe Australians have a right to see how the meat they're eating, in this case lamb, gets on their plate."
Rather than take down the commercial, Aussie Farms are fundraising so that they can pay for their video to reach a wider audience in the lead-up to Australia Day.
Since being uploaded to YouTube on Sunday, MLA's 'Commence Operation Boomerang' video has been viewed more than 1.15 million times.
By comparison, Aussie Farms' "parody" video has been seen 16,500 times since being uploaded to Vimeo three days ago.
