Australia

Wow, this had me reading a lot more and thinking about this in many more ways than I originally expected.

To be up front, I'm not Australian, so I don't know how things work there, legally speaking, or who exactly a lot of these people are. From reading the original article from the post, and then the article linked from that post, I'm a lot more neutral about the result of this.

There doesn't seem to be any disagreements between any parties on what the content of the video is. Game Meats and the inspectors seem to say, some of what is in the footage isn't great, but it's some of the unfortunate things that are an inherent part of commercial animal processing. They're just upset that Farm Transparency Project people are breaking into their facilities, and from their perspective, misrepresenting what is going on.

If that is indeed the case, which given I haven't come across anyone who's legally reviewed this footage seems to disagree, seems fairly conclusive is that the recorded slaughter is in compliance with regulation. Animals don't want to die, obviously, and if people want commercial meat production, this is sadly something that is going to occur with incidents. I've had many family members work in slaughterhouses, and I hunt deer for food, and not all animals die the same. You can do everything right as the person with the job, but every animal is a bit different and stuff can go wrong.

I don't know if FTP is a legitimate media resource or not. From what they're doing, it seems like they want to protect animals, which is fine. But they don't seem to be using legal channels to get evidence. While someone catching someone doing something illegal while doing something illegal themselves doesn't absolve the other party, I don't know how much we can condone illegally obtained evidence.

In the US, the last few years we have had a number of citizen "auditors" that usually just go and harass government employees at post offices or what have you, and I'm not sure how much BS places or people should have to put up with by random people trying to "expose them." They don't seem to be a big issue in Australia from some quick searching, though I did find a few people mentioning you do have a few notable people with media presence doing similar things.

Again, if anyone in charge of overseeing the slaughterhouse operations had reservations about what was in the footage, I'd be mad at Game Meats. I'm all about animal protections. But if we as humans are going to have meat production, this is part of the price for that. Most people today have probably never had to see where meat truly comes from. I get that it is upsetting. I'm not mad at FTP, I'm just not sure about how they are doing their investigation. If nobody else is finding the cruelty they are alleging, they might be wrong, legally speaking. To vegans, Game Meats (and also myself and any non-vegan) is wrong morally, but that isn't what the law typically decides.

I had also never heard of Peter Greste, so I looked up who he is, and I see why he would have a negative view of this case. But he seems more of a mainstream person that no one can really question the legitimacy of his journalism, other than the Egyptian government, of course. Again, I have no idea the legitimacy of FTP, but there is no shortage of people with less than good intentions where I am familiar with that do more harm than good to their causes.

If I've gotten anything sorely wrong, please let me know.