Since May 2024, we have been fighting to publish footage captured during a covert investigation at the Game Meats Company's slaughterhouse in Eurobin, Victoria. Our footage shows goats screaming in agony, jumping free of the stunning restraint and escaping onto the kill room floor, where they are sometimes killed while fully conscious. It also shows the brutal, painful slaughter of newborn baby goats.
We originally published the footage to our website, but a temporary injunction granted to the slaughterhouse forced it to be taken offline just hours later.
During a Federal Court trial in August last year, Farm Transparency Project directors Chris Delforce and Harley McDonald-Eckersall gave evidence, conceding that they had trespassed onto the Game Meats Company of Australia's property to install hidden cameras. The Federal Court denied a permanent injuction, however awarded the slaughterhouse $130,000 in damages.
The slaughterhouse subsequently appealed to the full court of the Federal Court, who reversed the ruling and granted an injunction on the footage via a constructive trust, ordering the destruction of the footage. These orders were stayed, pending the outcome of FTP's special leave application.
The High Court of Australia has now granted FTP special leave to appeal the Federal Court's decision. Approximately one in twenty special leave applications are granted.
The High Court will be the final arbiters on this case, with the outcome setting a binding precedent for future animal cruelty investigations in Australia. FTP will argue that the footage, which shows numerous instances of animal cruelty in breach of welfare requirements, as well as standard animal slaughter practices, should be allowed to be published and that we should retain copyright over the footage that we captured.
Dates are yet to be set for the hearing, which is expected to be held in Canberra in 2026.
