Vegan activists were pelted with KFC chicken legs as they staged a ‘friends not food’ demonstration outside a butchers last weekend.
Vegan activists were pelted with KFC chicken legs as they staged a ‘friends not food’ demonstration outside a butchers last weekend.
Stoke-on-Trent animal rights activists (STAR) say they were ‘taunted’ and filmed by people in a passing car when they protested outside Wayne Walker Quality Meats in Longport on Saturday.
Bradley Shaw, 22, who was part of the demonstration, told Stoke-out-Trent Live staff at the butchers ‘gave us a bit of stick and told us to clear off’ when the group first arrived.
The workers eventually relented and ‘had a civil conversation’ with protesters ‘when they realised we weren’t going to leave’ – but things became hostile when a car drove around a roundabout at the scene on Davenport Road.
Bradley said: ‘At one point a car went around the roundabout and we were hit by a chicken leg. There’s a KFC just up the road so I think they had seen us and gone there and decided to taunt us.
‘We could see their mates filming in the car and hear them shouting and laughing. They just think it’s a bit of fun to have a go at a vegan.’
The demonstration was held outside Wayne Walker Quality Meats in Longport
Staff at the butchers told protesters to ‘clear off’
The activist has admitted he’s ‘used to getting ridiculed’ for his beliefs, naming veganism a ‘controversial’ topic.
Despite the chicken leg incident, he said demonstrators had a ‘good response from the community overall’ and STAR are now planning future events.
Police were called to the protest on Saturday, but the activists ‘were not doing anything illegal’.
Michael Patrick, shop manager at Wayne Walker’s, said he ‘doesn’t have a problem with what they stand for’ but believes they shouldn’t ‘push their agenda onto other people’.
He said: ‘Their biggest problem seemed to be that we sell meat at low prices but we don’t actually slaughter any animals.
‘Thankfully the protest didn’t put off any of our customers. In fact, it was more like free publicity.’
