Vegetarians, carnivores face off at restaurant
TORONTO — A confrontation between animal rights activists and the owner of a restaurant who protesters say cut up and ate a piece of meat in front of them has inflamed tensions between vegans and sustainability minded omnivores over which diet is best for ethical eating.
Grassroots animal rights activist Marni Ugar said demonstrators returned to Antler Kitchen & Bar in Toronto last weekend, about a week after she said co-owner and chef Michael Hunter responded to a similar gathering outside the west-end eatery by carving up a large animal leg and eating the cooked meat in full view of protesters.
They were planning to return again, she said.
Ugar said the “sensationalized” confrontation on March 23 was the culmination of a series of protests against Antler, which according to the restaurant’s website, uses regionally sourced, seasonal ingredients and wild foods on its menu of Canadian cuisine, including offerings such as deer, wild boar and bison.
The incident drew international headlines and words of support from American comedian Patton Oswalt, who tweeted that he planned to patronize the restaurant during his next visit to Toronto.
Hunter could not be reached for comment on the matter. A spokesperson for Antler said in an email that the restaurant is “taking a step back from media” and “re-focusing all efforts to servicing our customers.”
Amid the media frenzy, Ugar said she believes the message of the demonstrations has been distorted.
She does not see the conflict as one between a small-business owner and a group of protesters, but rather a moral battle to dispel the biases that lead people to value the lives of certain species of animals over others, which she sees as a form of discrimination called “speciesism.”
“It’s like there’s a hierarchy,” she said. “You’re a pig, so you’ll be in a little crate in the darkness and then be killed for food. But you’re a dog, so we’ll put a jacket on you and cuddle you at night.”
She said she also objects to Antler’s promotion of the “humane meat myth,” which she characterized as a fallacy consumers use to justify a carnivore diet based on the conditions in which the animal lived before being sent off to slaughter.
Chris MacDonald, director of the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre at Ryerson University’s school of management, said Antler is an odd target for protest because the restaurant seems to make an effort to source their meat sustainability and reduce animal suffering.
MacDonald, who does not eat meat, said the restaurant’s business represents just a “tiny drop in the bucket” compared to the mass slaughter of animals at the hands of multinational food companies.
“If you’re going to sell meat, [Antler] is probably doing it pretty close to doing it right … It’s hard to imagine what a company would look like that was trying any harder to get it right short of just going out of business.”