Tash Peterson: Notorious vegan activist fires back after receiving death threats for viral fishing video

Controversial vegan activist Tash Peterson has fired back after a video of her crashing a family’s fishing trip in an act of protest went viral online.

The bizarre stunt has amassed more than half a million views and shows Peterson marching up to a man’s fishing rod, removing it from a sand spike and walking away with it before lecturing the bemused man and the young children accompanying him on “fish murder”.

“Animals deserve to live, fish feel pain and they want to live, you need to stop this now,” she said to the man.

In a follow-up video posted to Instagram, Peterson said she took the man’s fishing rods in “an act of protest against exploiting, abusing, and murdering marine animals.”

“A lot of people are threatening me, saying that I deserve to be beaten and assaulted for doing this,” she said.

“Which is really interesting because these are the very same people who would likely call me a hero had this man been hooking dogs in the mouth and drowning them.”

Peterson captioned the video with: “Non-human animals deserve moral consideration and the basic right to not be exploited, abused and murdered”.

Despite receiving plenty of backlash on the original stunt video, Peterson had some supporters this time.

“I think you made a valid point,” one commenter said.

“Not a vegan but i actually agree with a lot you have to say. Stay true to yourself,” another said.

Peterson’s brazen stunt left many people infuriated, with some questioning why she had touched another person’s belongings when she doesn’t like it when others take her signs and loudhailers during her protests.

“You don’t like when people grab your protest signs and your personal belongings, you should not touch other peoples stuff. This is not going to help make people vegan this just gives us a bad name … just approach kindly and have a conversation not steal his (sic) sht,” one commenter said.

Another added, “The exact reaction why vegans are hated. There are many ways to dissiminate (sic) one idea, your values, respect and love for animals, peace. Harassing a family at the beach is not one of them. This is what push people away from veganism.”

Peterson has a long history of provocative activism and was bankrupted after she and her husband were sued for defamation by a Perth veterinary clinic owner last year.