Animal rights activists say the owner of a Dundas St. restaurant responded to their protest last week by carving and eating meat at the front display window.

The demonstration outside Antler Kitchen and Bar on Dundas St. W. Friday evening, was the fourth time the group had held a protest at that location. Antler is a game-themed restaurant that serves “innovative Canadian cuisine” including deer, wild boar, bison, deer and rabbit, according to their website.

The protest featured a banner that said “Murder” in large, hot pink letters, and a sign that said “Animals are not ours to use.” One demonstrator, Len Goldberg, had a sign that read “please add vegan steak to the menu.”

During the protest, the owner came near the restaurant’s front window and began carving meat, Goldberg said.

Later, he returned and began eating cooked meat “by himself at the front window” while the demonstration continued outside, Goldberg recalled.

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Toronto police were called to the scene twice, at 7 p.m. and just before 8:30 p.m. “regarding a vegan protest at a meat serving restaurant,” police spokesperson Jenifferjit Sidhu said in an email.

Police attended “to keep the peace,” Sidhu said, “and from my understanding no charges (were) laid or tickets issued.”

Michael Hunter, chef and owner of Antler, declined interview requests from the Star.

“These protests are not unusual for the restaurant industry and therefore we are not surprised by the actions of the protestors,” Hunter wrote in an email. “We are operating business as usual…Our identity as a restaurant is well known throughout the city as is our ethical farming and foraging initiatives,” he wrote. “We stand by our restaurants identity and the identity of myself as a chef.”

In a 2016 article published in the Foodservice and Hospitality magazine, Hunter said “I respect vegetarian and vegan diets and understand that meat doesn’t sit well with some people’s diets or values.”

Antler’s menu includes multiple vegetarian options: wild mushroom risotto, chestnut gnocchi, warm lentil and beet salad, vegetable lumpia, wild mushroom tarte tatin and artisanal cheese.

Hunter told the Star’s restaurant critic in 2016 that “people deserve the right to eat this food that’s wild, the way it was intended to be.”

The protest outside of Antler was attended by about a dozen people.

“I’m trying to debunk the humane meat myth,” protest organizer Marni Ugar said. “It really is, from my perspective, it’s a myth. There’s no such thing as any animal that actually wants to die.”

Ugar said her main goal is education, not protest.

“It’s about standing up for animals, and there’s a difference,” she said. “I’ve looked into the eyes of animals on farm sanctuaries … and I see thousands of animals en route to slaughter, and there’s a real difference in their eyes.”

After reaching out to Hunter, Ugar said he invited them to “go out and forage and pick vegetables.” Foraged mushrooms are featured in at least three of Antler’s dishes, posted in the restaurant’s online menu.

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“The goal of the whole thing is not to put anybody out of business,” Goldberg said. “The goal is to work with these businesses to add more vegan items to the menu, because that’s the direction the world is going.”

Shamez Amlani, co-owner of La Palette on Queen St. W., is no stranger to protesters outside his restaurant. Between 2010 and 2012, demonstrators rallied against foie gras and horse meat served at the French bistro. Today, both dishes remain on the menu.

Horse meat was removed from the menu in August 2011 following a Toronto Star investigation into Canada’s horse slaughter industry. Horse dishes were returned to the menu in 2012 after Amlani said he was confident “it was safe for human consumption.”

Amlani said having protesters outside of your restaurant can be “a little bit perturbing and disturbing.”

But he added that, after serving five times more foie gras while the protesters were there than ever before, having protesters can also be “the most brilliant marketing campaign ever.”

“You can’t back down, you can’t capitulate,” Amlani said. “You have to stand by your guns.”