Vegan Woman Sued Her Neighbors for Barbecuing Meat in Their Backyard: 'It's Been Devastating'

An Australian vegan has been locked in a legal battle with her neighbors for years after claiming they purposely used their barbecue to cook meat, sending the smells wafting into her backyard.

Cilla Carden, a massage therapist, has taken her neighbors to court multiple times, beginning in August 2017, over various claims, including the meat, the sound of scraping chairs, noisy pet birds, and reflective light, the Guardian reports.

Carden, who lives in the suburbs of the western city of Perth, told Nine News Perth that she also has issues with her neighbors smoking cigarettes and allowing their children to bounce basketballs.

“They’ve put [the barbecue] there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish,” she told the outlet. “I can’t enjoy my backyard, I can’t go out there.”

She continued, “It’s been devastating, it’s been turmoil. It’s been unrest, I haven’t been able to sleep.”

Carden, who insists that the behaviors are “deliberate,” recently took her complaints to Australia’s Supreme Court and the State Administrative Tribunal — where they were dismissed, Nine News Perth reports.

A neighbor told the outlet that he has gotten rid of the offending barbecue, and has also told his children to stop playing basketball.

“Ms. Carden’s demands were proven to be not reasonable and indeed were to the detriment of the other owners’ ability to enjoy their lots in a reasonable and acceptable manner,” another neighbor told Nine News in a statement.

Though she reportedly is considering further legal action, Supreme court justice Peter Quinlan said he was not satisfied “that there is an arguable case that the tribunal denied Ms. Carden procedural fairness or acted to her disadvantage so as to cause a miscarriage of justice,” according to the Guardian.

Still, Carden will stand her ground: “I’m a good person. I just want peace and quiet,” she told The West Australian.

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