Animal rights activist and vegan advocate Tash Peterson has defended herself after a confrontation at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, where she was filmed removing a father and son’s fishing rods from the sand.
In the social media video, Peterson strides up to a fishing rod secured in a sand spike, pulls it free and heads towards the promenade. The fisherman quickly catches up and takes the rod back as his young son looks on, visibly shocked and confused. Peterson, dressed in active wear, is then seen in an animated exchange with the father. As the conversation becomes clearer, she tells him, “Animals deserve to live, fish feel pain, and they want to live,”
Online, many viewers accused the 32-year-old of hypocrisy, pointing to previous protests where she has objected to people touching her belongings. In a statement, Peterson said she and her partner were “simply walking” along Bondi Beach when she saw a stingray being reeled in and decided to intervene. “The animal was visibly distressed, flapping and struggling, and the person fishing appeared to be having difficulty removing the hook or line. It was confronting to witness, and my immediate instinct was to intervene to prevent further harm,” she said.
Peterson said the pair acted to free the animal and return it to the ocean. “We helped cut the line and return the stingray to the water. Fish, rays, and other marine animals are sentient beings. They can feel pain, stress, and fear. “They are not objects or resources: they are individuals, and they deserve moral consideration and the basic right not to be exploited, abused, or murdered.”
Footage shows Peterson then removing a second rod, which the man again retrieves from her, before telling her to leave. Peterson continues confronting the group, saying, “Imagine what it feels like to have a hook in your mouth and suffocate to death. Put these away now. This should be illegal. Put them away now,” She later pulls out a final rod as her boyfriend, Jack Higgs, comments from behind the camera, “Legality isn’t morality,” Peterson adds, “Destroy this torture equipment,” and Higgs alleges, “You just murdered a shark and countless other animals,” No fish are seen being caught in the clip.
On Facebook, the response was largely hostile, with commenters focusing on Peterson handling someone else’s gear. “What gives you the right to touch their property?” one person wrote. Another added, “So she can take off with someone’s fishing rod, but it’s assault when someone tries to take her loudspeaker?” A third wrote, “Yet someone grabs your sign in public, and you ask them not to touch your property. The math ain’t mathing. Make it make sense,” The criticism referenced earlier moments at protests when Peterson has reacted to people trying to take her megaphone or signs, including one rally where she said, “Do not touch my property, do not touch me,”
Peterson later defended the Bondi confrontation by arguing the attention should be on the harm to animals rather than intervention, posing the comparison of whether people would focus on someone stepping in to stop dogs being shot, or on the killing itself.
On Instagram, she received more support. One follower wrote, “You’re just fking amazing. It’s so hard to operate in a world where you care so deeply while nobody else gives a sh*t,” Another commented, “As a vegan of 7 years I can tell you now, life for us is not easy. Yet we’re the ones getting beaten up. For doing the right fking thing. Seriously, folks, there’s something very wrong with the great majority of people out there. They’re sleepwalking.” A separate supporter added, “Fishing for fun is weird.”
Peterson is no stranger to controversy. In 2023, she poured red paint onto the floor of a KFC store, saying the chain has “blood on their hands” and that customers do too, “if you’re not vegan”. Later that year, she was charged with trespass and disorderly behaviour in public after entering Fyre restaurant in Perth’s north during a protest that followed comments from British chef John Mountain and an ensuing decision by the venue to ban vegans. Peterson and Mountain later became involved in a heated confrontation outside the restaurant before it was broken up.