A vegan woman filed a lawsuit against her meat-cooking neighbors, and now a cookout has been planned in her honor — right outside her home.
According to Australia’s Nine News, Cilla Carden took the case against her next-door neighbors to the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Carden claimed that odors coming from grilled meat and fish were ruining her quality of life.
According to The DailyMail, her neighbors were always barbecuing fish in a manner that the vegan considered deliberate.
“All I can smell is fish,” she said. “I can’t enjoy my backyard.”
But it wasn’t just the smell of cooking meat that had Carden so upset. She also took issue with the noise made by the children’s basketballs, and the smell of the family members smoking in their backyard.
“It’s been devastating, it’s been turmoil, it’s been unrest,” Carden said. “I haven’t been able to sleep.”
In an effort to remedy all this, she took the neighboring family to court for the barbecue and cigarette smells, as well as the frequent noise of basketballs being bounced.
For his part, the neighbor moved the barbecue away from her unit and instructed his kids not to play basketball anymore.
However, it seems they can legally carry on their games as desired since the tribunal that heard the case dismissed all of Carden’s claims and said the neighbor didn’t make enough noise to be considered a nuisance.
As they ruled, “What they are doing is living in their backyard and their home as a family.” Carden then attempted to take her case to the Supreme Court of Western Australia but was denied.
While that would normally spell the end of the story, Carden has since faced backlash as critics accused her of trying to destroy an Australian tradition.
Now, thousands of people have marked themselves as “attending” a community cookout outside this woman’s home called the event “Community BBQ for Cilla Carden”.
Nearly 9000 people have said they’re interested in attending the event set for Oct. 19, which clearly intends to mock Carden’s case against her neighbors.
“Cilla Carden has a problem with her neighbors cooking meat on their BBQ because she’s a vegan. Recently taking them to the Supreme Court,” creator of the event Bailey Mason wrote.
“Don’t let Cilla destroy a good old Aussie tradition, join us for a community BBQ, and help Cilla Carden GET SOME PORK ON HER FORK.”
In response to the planned event, Carden’s lawyer, John Hammond, has said that anyone who tries to access her property will be charged with trespassing.
As he said, “Security cameras will be installed to obtain a vision of any person attending the property and the vision will be provided to the police.”
To avoid any potential legal repercussions, even details have been altered slightly.
The community barbecue’s host, Mason, has edited the event description to emphasize that nobody is allowed to set foot on Carden’s property and that the front yards of participating neighbors will be used instead.
Watch the video report below for more details:
Sources: OpposingViews, 9News, DailyMail