The Case of the Angry Vegan

If you were writing a novel would you use this concept: “Angry vegan in leather skirt and animal print top takes her neighbors to court to stop them from barbecuing meat after claiming that the smells are impacting her sleep.”

Fair enough, you would probably reject the concept. It is too ridiculous. No reader will care about what happens to the angry vegan or her barbecuing neighbors. And, no, I am not recommending that the neighbors solve the problem by barbecuing the angry vegan. I still have some measure of decorum.

The sad part, which proves your point, is that the story is true. It comes to us from Australia, via the Daily Mail.

As it happens, the angry vegan, who plies the trade of massage therapist, claimed in court that she could not enjoy her backyard because odors of fish were wafting through it… produced by the neighbors’ barbecue. 

As though that were not a sufficient indignity, the neighbor wife smokes cigarettes and their children play basketball. 

Speaking of chronic scolds, people who go to court over barbecued fish are in a class all their own.

The angry vegan told this to the local news:

'They've put it there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish. I can't enjoy my backyard, I can't go out there,' she said. 

'It's deliberate, that's what I told the courts, it's deliberate,' she said. 

'It's been devastating, it's been turmoil, it's been unrest I haven't been able to sleep.'

As it happened the barbecuing neighbors have tried to accommodate the angry vegan’s sensitive sensibilities… to no avail. The stench is still there. As for getting a large outdoor fan... the thought has less appeal than does that of harassing your neighbors.

The case has been heard in court and the Australian judges, a decidedly un-woke bunch, rejected the claim.