Turkey farmers have last laugh after ‘vegan’ graffiti is scrawled on shop windows
Furious vegans, enraged by a Christmas turkey offer, branded a farmer a murderer and psychopath and scrawled anti-meat graffiti over his farm shop.
Protesters attacked Greendale farm shop after owner Mat Carter invited customers to: “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.”
The post went viral, attracting more than 4,000 comments and reactions after it was picked up and shared by vegans. But the protest appeared to have backfired after farm owner Mat said yester- day that the farm shop had its busiest day yet thanks to the inadvertent publicity.
Mr Carter arrived at the shop near Exeter yesterday to find blue paint with the words “Murder!” and “Go vegan” sprayed across the door. Pheasants hung outside were also sprayed with blue paint.
‘Today will be a record-breaking day in the shop’
Mat Carter
Mr Carter, 35, said he had been overwhelmed by the positive response from the public, with dozens of turkey orders and the busiest day ever in the farm shop.
“To be honest the original offer was a bit tongue-incheek,” he said. “I didn’t really expect people to bring their kids in after school every day and look after their own turkey.
“When I walked in this morning and we had the graffiti on the door I thought, ‘This is a disaster’. But ever since then the amount of support we have had has been incredible – today will be a record-breaking day in the shop.”
He said there were two camps of vegans – the militants “who have no understanding for others’ points of view. And then there are the vegans I welcome with open arms who come into our shop and buy vegetables and are happy to let everybody live and let live.
“The butcher got a phone call from someone who said ‘how would you like it if I cut you up and put you on the counter’. That’s verging on a death threat.”
Among the many critics was Ben Cooper, who wrote: “Looking after them, gaining their trust and then paying somebody else to slash their throats open for us because we don’t want to do the dirty work ourselves?”
Marjory Ellen O’Brien wrote: “Name him like your puppy, or cat ... or your kid ... and then chop his head off and eat him. Sounds just like psychopathic behaviour to me.
“They are sentient beings that feel love and have friends and family... They are not a meal.”