Vegan Activist Stages Semi-Naked Protest In Nike After Being Hit With Hefty Fines

An Australian vegan activist staged a topless protest in a Nike store shortly after being fined thousands of dollars.

Tash Peterson, 28, recently stood trial over two earlier half-naked protests: one Cottesloe in December 2020; and another at the Louis Vuitton store in Perth city last year.

While she denied any unlawful or offensive behaviour, she was handed fines totalling $3500 (£2,000) and found guilty of two counts of behaving in a disorderly manner over both incidents.

You can watch a clip from Peterson's latest protest below:

Peterson has since launched a GoFundMe to raise funds to pay for her legal fees, which has so far raised more than $3,125 (£1,784).

However, her guilty verdict hasn't deterred her from further protests. Yesterday (9 April), she appeared at the Nike store in Perth's Karrinyup Shopping Centre wearing a kangaroo suit on her bottom half, while showing her bare upper half covered in pink and red paint.

In footage of the protest shared to Peterson's Facebook, she alleges: "Nike are murdering kangaroos and turning them into shoes.

"The largest land based murder of wildlife is happening in our own country. Every night thousands of kangaroos graze peacefully when humans invade their homes and shoot them in the head for their flesh and skin.

"It is standard legal industry practice to shoot mothers in the head, rip joeys from their pouch, and crush their skull or thrash them against a bull bar. You are responsible for this holocaust if you are not vegan."

As per Full Fact, Nike use kangaroo skin for some of its football boots. The company has earlier said that "kangaroos - If wild caught, must be sourced from actively managed populations with government agency oversight."

In another Facebook post, Peterson wrote: "The system can convict and fine me all they want, but I will never cover my body because they tell me that my breasts are offensive and inappropriate.

"I will never stop using my bodily freedom to raise awareness for those who have no bodily freedom.

"I will never stop speaking on behalf of non-human animals and using the correct language to describe their suffering, when I get a criminal conviction for using the words rape, abuse and murder, which I was told was 'far fetched' and offensive.

"What is actually offensive and beyond that is enslaving, raping, torturing, abusing and murdering animals in the meat, dairy, egg, leather, wool, fur, down, scale etc. industries.

"It's ironic that people find my conduct to be offensive and inappropriate whilst they pay people to murder animals so they can eat their bodies and secretions."

UNILAD has reached out to Nike for comment.

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