A restaurant owner started eating a steak in front of a group of vegan demonstrators who protested outside his Toronto eatery.
Michael Hunter, who calls himself ‘The Hunter Chef’, threw water over the demonstrators’ pavement chalking, before carving the leg of a deer in the window, and then eating it while looking at them.
The protesters turned up to the restaurant to reach out to Hunter they asked him to ‘Please add vegan steak to the menu’ in chalk on the pavement outside, but were met with ‘taunting’ and a sign which read ‘venison is the new kale’.
Here’s an exclusive video of the restaurant owner ‘defiling’ the deer in front of the ‘vegan outreach’:
[ooyala player_id=”5df2ff5a35d24237905833bd032cd5d8″ auto=”true” width=”640″ height=”360″ pcode=”twa2oyOnjiGwU8-cvdRQbrVTiR2l” code=”4ybmt0ZTE6o1HnNOT4TW8tPc52-9IZaR”]
Marni Ugar, who led the demonstration, told UNILAD:
I chose Antler because their patrons feel good about eating ethical meat.
I believe there’s no such thing; for that one animal, no matter what kind of animal and how they were raised, that’s their life and they don’t want to die.
We’re being attacked for protesting a small business who has a couple of vegan options however, if they were serving dogs and cats with vegan options, there would be an outcry of support.
When Michael came to the window carving into the leg of a deer, he looked like a crazed man unravelling in front of us, taunting a group who were there because they care about animal welfare.
Speaking to UNILAD, Len Goldberg, activist videographer for the vegan outreach, said:
It’s enough the poor deer had her life taken and had her family destroyed. That was an individual, she may have had a family, she may have had children, she may have had a partner. She had her herd, her friends, her personality, her desires, her feelings, her wants, her fears, her loves, her character, her heart, her soul.
It’s enough all of that was taken from her, but now we have her body being defiled and degraded to taunt people who were simply advocated for her kind.
We chose that particular location to do our vegan outreach because that restaurant goes beyond the profound problem of serving the bodies of murdered animals, to actually celebrating the murder of animals.
Len continued:
If anyone cares to take a look at Antler’s Facebook page and look through the photos, you’ll see the restaurant taking pleasure in taking animals’ lives.
You will see animals on a spit above a fire next to someone with a glass of wine in a celebratory stance next to the animal.
It’s enough the animals are having their lives taken, but this restaurant is actually mocking the taking of their lives and people can’t just stand by and be silent while they go ahead and do that.
Len said their goal was to: ‘inspire the owner to add more and more vegan options that respect animals and protect people’s health and the environment’.
They hope the restaurant, will one day, ‘transition to a fully vegan operation that is every bit as prosperous for the owner and better for all beings’.
Michael Hunter, of Toronto’s Antler restaurant, has been approached for comment, but is yet to respond.
For licensing contact licensing@unilad.co.uk and if you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
