THE head of Mick Gatto’s debt collection service has accused a Laverton knackery of gagging free speech after he was slapped with a restraining order that prevented an animal cruelty protest going ahead.
Gatto Corporate Solutions managing director Anthony Swords appeared in Werribee Magistrates Court last week to fight an interim intervention order that forced organisers to call off a planned rally of up to 300 people outside Laverton Pet Supplies.
Describing himself as a “softy” when it came to protecting racehorses, Mr Swords said the “peaceful protest” had been aimed at drawing attention to the “trauma that horses are suffering there”.
Mr Swords is the founder of We Were Champions, a group that outbids knackeries for former racehorses. He organised the rally after covert footage emerged last year. It appeared to show brutal treatment and inhumane slaughter of horses at the Leakes Road knacker’s yard.
Filmed by the Coalition for Protection of Racehorses during Melbourne Cup week, the footage was met with outrage from animal welfare groups and prompted Werribee Open Range Zoo to cancel its meat supply arrangement with the knackery.
The RSPCA investigated the knackery, but said there was insufficient evidence to lay animal cruelty charges. The knackery was issued a formal warning.
Mr Swords, of Point Cook, was visited by Werribee police about 7.30am on June 20 and served with the order hours before the protest was to start. The order prohibited him from attending the property to protest. One of the conditions implied that if anyone else protested, he would be held responsible and would be arrested.
The applicant of the intervention order and a spokeswoman for Laverton Pet Supplies refused to comment. The case will go to a contest mention at Sunshine Magistrates Court on October 25.
