I haven't been able to find any evidence yet that she herself is a "bogey", but certainly her work lends itself to manipulation and misinterpretation by the swivel-eyed and deluded, including the "r"SPCA.
I've no doubt that there are people embedded within the academic community who look for opportunities to give validity to the claims of animal rights (just like any industry, research which ostensibly validates claims is vital). She's done some well-regarded work and been lauded for some of it by bodies who I'd expect would be able to spot a hostile.
There's part of an interview she gave to an Australian channel on this link
AM - British study finds fish have feelings , there are some interesting statements and replies to questions there, for example...
MATT PEACOCK: If you had bee venom injected into your face, or acid rubbed on it, you'd react to the pain, and that says Edinburgh University's Dr Victoria Braithwaite is just what the fish did.
That's a toxic substance, very different to a simple stimulus IMO. Of course an organism will have a response to toxic substances, anglers know all about that thanks to United Utilities and others. If I cut myself at work in a minor way I usually don't notice until I wonder why there's blood on my keyboard/desk/mug/wherever. Totally different to if I nick myself while chopping chillies, or I get a weak acid or peroxide into an existing minor skin wound at work (the disposable gloves aren't always to hand...).
VICTORIA BRAITHWAITE: The way we perceive pain will be very different to the way that a fish can. But I think there is enough information out there in fish biology now to know that they're remarkably complex and very capable organisms
Which means it may not be what we recognise as "pain" at all. It would be very counter-productive for any organism not to have a response mechanism to potential threats, doesn't mean they suffer "pain" as we know it with all the associated emotional and physiological effects. As for complex and capable organisms, that's obvious, they've been around for hundreds of millions of years, there are more fish (both species and individuals) than all other vertebrates put togther.
VICTORIA BRAITHWAITE: I was going to say they seem to have a capacity to have, to beware aware of the environment and to have awareness, you know, at a fish level
The key thing here is "at a fish level". Of course they have! They are aware of threats, food sources, reproductive needs, but none of that requires cogniscance or "self-awareness". Virtually every mobile multi-cellular organism that I can think of has those same basic awarenesses to some degree.