Disruptive and dangerous: vegan activists undeterred by court penalties

Many in the agricultural industry would answer with a resounding no.

These activists jump on social media and boast about about costing processors tens of thousands of dollars, at the same time vowing to not stop carrying out these actions, even when they are brought before the courts.

In April seven activists were charged with trespass following after dozens of people entered Benalla Abattoirs in Victoria and chained themselves to processing equipment.

In December Farm Transparency Project founder Chris Delforce took to his Instagram account to summarise the year and in doing so, credited "our lawyer Daniel, who managed to achieve some pretty great outcomes".

We all know more incursions are no doubt planned and that these "pretty great" outcome will have no impact on what some of these career activists will do next.

One example of both the relatively light sentences being doled and the attitude of some of these individuals' towards the law is notable in the case of one of the Benalla offenders, Andrew William Dudas.

The 24-year-old appeared in court in July via video link, to receive a penalty many producers and processors would consider inadequate; not even a fine but a donation of $300 to Edgar's Mission, a charity that looks after "rescued" farm animals.

Dudas posted a video recording he took during his sentencing to Instagram, breaking Victorian law in the process.

Upon the completion of the sentencing Dudas can be seen to grin at the camera and say "yeah, dog"- hardly an indication of any kind of remorse.

Notorious vegan activist Tash Peterson, known for stunts involving fake blood and going topless, was fined $2100 through Western Australia's court system in August for some of her recent activity.

Celebrity chef John Mountain, whose restaurant Fyre has been a target of Peterson's protests, said the fines were not enough of a deterrent because she "earns enough money to not worry about $1000 here and $1000 there".

People are fed up at seeing activists cause major disruption to their businesses and end up with little more than a slap on the wrist, undeterred from plans of their next endeavour.

And like Mr Mountain alluded to, many of them tend to crowdfund to cover their fines and court costs.

With this in mind, fines may not be the most appropriate penalty, at least not in small amounts.

In finding an appropriate sentence for any crime, courts must weigh up many factors, including what sort of punishment will stop someone from committing a similar offence again and the need to make clear this type of behaviour is unacceptable.

It's not a stretch to say being ordered to pay a fine to a cause that is only going to affirm their world view and perhaps encourage them to take similar actions again may not be the right fit.