Whether or not you follow a vegan diet and lifestyle, I think we can all agree that reducing our consumption of meat is better for the planet and that no animal deserves to be treated with the cruelty and indignity of factory farms. That’s why I partially sympathize with Leah Doellinger, an Australian vegan who’s been charged 22 times for breaking into farms to rescue animals. Her methods may be questionable but it’s clear she’s passionate about animal welfare and has their best interests at heart.
- Leah wants to raise awareness. According to Yahoo News Australia, despite Leah’s trouble with the law, she has no regrets about breaking into farms to expose the terrible practices in place at many factory farms or about rescuing (or some would say stealing) animals she believes to be in danger. She often shares footage of the animals and the farms she encounters on her social media to hopefully shed light on what’s really happening. “I take people into these farms to show them exactly what is happening so we can gain the footage and share it with the public,” she explained.
- Her social media activism has led to her downfall on several occasions. For instance, police used GPS coordinates in the metadata of Leah’s Instagram posts in November 2019 to link her to a break-in and theft of six piglets from Cameron Pastoral Company’s property in Queensland. However, she’s still not giving up.
- Leah started her activism in 2016 and it’s all for the animals. She began attending vigil events but before long branched out into rescue operations. “We called them open rescues where you don’t wear a balaclava and don’t hide your identity because we don’t consider ourselves criminals,” she said. “There is self-gain in most crime, but what we do, there’s no self-gain. We do it for the animals.”
- She insists that she’s not there to cause harm but rather spread the truth. Leah said that her “crimes” are relatively harmless in that most of the time, the farms she and fellow activists break into don’t even know they’ve been there. “I take people into these farms to show them exactly what is happening so we can gain the footage and share it with the public,” she explained. “Most of the time we do this, they’ve got no idea we’ve even been there. It’s only when we do a daylight action, and we purposefully want the attention, that they will know we’re there.”
- Leah is scared of going to jail but she’s dedicated to the cause. Many laws in Australia are seeking to crack down on animal activists, and Leah is definitely frightened of ending up in jail for her work. However, she believes she’s ultimately doing the right thing and that eventually, industrial farms will have to own up to their practices. “This is the end for [factory farmers] and they can feel it. They can no longer keep their secrets hidden away where no one can see or hear the innocent begging for mercy but we can feel them and that is why we won’t stop,” she said.
