Vegan activist Tash Peterson is dealt brutal blow after begging Aussies to give her $30,000 so she could leave the country
Tash Peterson’s visa for the UK has been denied due to her ‘criminal record’ after she begged followers to give her $30,000 so she could go to an animal rights ‘camp out’.
Perth-based Peterson, 31, surrendered her passport and declared bankruptcy in May this year after losing a defamation suit.
Western Australian Supreme Court Chief Justice Peter Quinlan found in 2024 that she and her boyfriend, Jack Higgs, had published defamatory claims about a vet ‘eating her own patients’.
Peterson and Higgs were ordered to pay $280,000 in damages.
However, the young activists wanted to travel to the UK to deliver a speech at the Vegan Camp Out Festival in Hertfordshire next weekend.
Peterson turned to her followers to raise $30,000 for a bond to their bankruptcy trustees to retrieve their passports. She managed to raise just under $5,000.
On Friday, she revealed the effort was for naught.
‘The UK Home Office has declined my entry to the UK because I’ve had convictions in the past 12 months for criminal damage and disorderly conduct, despite this just being days away from this period ending,’ Peterson said in a video.
Notorious vegan activist Tash Peterson’s (pictured) UK visa was rejected after she attempted to raise $30,000 for travel bond
‘Additionally, I’ve also been rejected because my record shows that I’m a repeat offender.
‘If I continue to commit offences, I will never be allowed to enter the UK again.’
Peterson slammed the department’s decision to decline her visa as she doesn’t ‘commit offences to cause harm’.
‘I’m a nonviolent activist fighting to end the exploitation of non-human people,’ she said.
As for where the raised funds will go, Peterson vowed to make a large donation to charity.
‘I’ll be giving all donations to Farm Transparency Project, the creators of Dominion,’ she said.
‘For now, I’ll hand my passport back to my trustee and continue my mission to end the animal holocaust.’
Higgs had previously touted the same charity when asked where the raised funds would go once the couple got their bond back.
Both surrendered their passports earlier this year after being hit with bankruptcy and strict court-ordered travel conditions (Higgs and Peterson pictured together)
In April this year, WA vet Kay McIntosh’s lawyer, Martin Bennett, said neither Peterson nor Higgs had ‘attempted to pay a cent’ of the defamation damages.
Peterson has carried out controversial protests on several occasions including ‘gatecrashing’ restaurants and agricultural events.
In March, she burst into The Lamb Shop at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast playing the ‘screams of terrified animals’ from a speaker attached to her belt.
‘Do the screams make you feel guilty?’ she asked customers before she was confronted by a worker.
She has also covered her body in fake blood on numerous occasions and paraded through public locations while carrying pro-veganism signs.
Last year, the semi-clad activist protested in a bloodied stunt outside David Jones on Hay Street in Perth’s CBD.
She highlighted the message by lying on top of a ‘blood-soaked chopping block’ which read: ‘David Jones: Drop Wild-Animal Skins’.
Peterson launched an OnlyFans page in 2022 to fund her career-activist ambitions, publishing a lengthy video explaining the move at the time.
Peterson has become known for her public protests, including ‘blood’-soaked stunts (above) and restaurant disruptions
‘I get accused of being an attention seeker, I get accused of sexualising myself, I get accused of just doing my animal rights activism to promote my OnlyFans account,’ she said.
‘Obviously in our society today we think women are treated equally however there is so much ingrained misogyny amongst men and women today because a lot of people are saying women shouldn’t be wearing lingerie, they shouldn’t be going on OnlyFans and getting paid to be topless or naked.
‘I completely dispute this because I think women should be able to do whatever the hell they want to with their bodies.’
Her OnlyFans revenue was scrutinised in court in April, following the bankruptcy declaration.
The justice rejected the pursuant’s attempts to conflate Peterson’s activism and her trust company, V-Gan Booty PTY LTD, which owns her subscription operations.
He said Peterson’s OnlyFans revenue was likely boosted by her notoriety as an activist, but said not all of her actions were ‘in her capacity as a director or agent of the company’, according to the West Australian.
The company raked in $250,952 in taxable income for the financial year 2021-22, of which $132,948 came from online subscription sales.
Daily Mail has contacted Peterson for comment.
