Shoppers flocking to farm after vegan row

A TURKEY farmer who got death threats after offering customers the chance to name and feed a bird before it is slaughtered at Christmas says his orders have gone up – 1,500 per cent.

Farmer Matt Carter, 35, says he normally sells one or two turkeys a day but after attacks by the “vegan mafia” he’s flogged 25 a day since.

Matt, of Greendale Farm Shop, sparked the row after he posted an offer on Facebook, which read: “Come and pick your own Christmas turkey at the farm shop.

“We will put a name tag on it and you come and feed it and help look after it for the next two months.

“You won’t need to get involved in any of the difficult bits at the end and we will even bone and stuff it for you when you come and pick it up, in time for Christmas.’’

But his post went viral attracting thousands of comments – mostly from vegans calling Matt “twisted”, “psychopathic” and even a “murderer”.

Workers received threats and insults and graffiti was daubed across the shop’s entrance.

But the post – which now has nearly 6,000 interactions – has got so much attention sales had spiked by 1,566 per cent this week.

Matt said he’d usually get one or two turkey orders on a Wednesday in November – but instead sold around 25, with other sales in the shop “quadrupling”.

Fifth-generation farmer Matt said: “It took lots of scrubbing to get the graffiti off, but the publicity it has brought and the support we have had has been amazing.

“I’ve been completely pleasantly surprised by the support both locally – with feet on the ground in the shop – and nationally online.

“I’m not one to court publicity, but really these sales have been brilliant and totally unexpected.

“It’s sales I suspect we would never have got before all this, so it has completely backfired for these vegan mafia people.

“They wanted to shut us down but in reality we’re busier than ever.”

The shop’s farm near Exeter and has pigs, beef cattle, sheep, turkeys and chickens.

Some of the turkeys are free range, while others are kept in a large open barn.

Matt put up his post on Saturday, and it immediately started attracting attention from critics, and his shop was targeted by vandals on Monday night.