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A farm has been covered in anti-meat graffiti after furious vegans branded a farmer a murderer and a psychopath - and even issued a death threat - over a pick your own turkey offer.

A farmer has been bombarded with death threats and branded a murderer and a psychopath after he offered shoppers the chance to choose, name, feed and look after their Christmas turkey for two months - before it's slaughtered.

The farm owners arrived at work today and discovered vandals had sprayed "murder! Go vegan" on the front door.

Vandals broke into the farm overnight to protest over the unique offer and sprayed huge graffiti on the glass entrance.

Staff discovered the graffiti as they headed to work on Tuesday morning.

The protesters also sprayed bright blue paint all over dead pheasants - on sale to customers - that were hung by the shop front.

Farmer Matt Carter, 35, of Greendale Farm Shop in Devon posted the offer on Facebook - and hoped it might simply attract a few extra orders and likes from local customers.

The farm post 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 2 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 much to his surprise his post went viral - attracting more than 4,000 comments, shares and reactions - after it was picked up by furious vegans.

Online commenters have accused the farm, which is near Exeter, of MURDER and branded Matt "psychopathic".

The butcher has since received 'death threats', Matt said, and he claims furious vegans have been "bombarding" the Devon shop with phone calls to threaten staff.

Many people jumped to Matt's defence online and thanked him for educating kids and branded haters hypocritical and ignorant.

But then the "crazy" vegans started hitting out at the supporters - calling them "bad parents" and messaging them with abuse".

Fifth generation farmer Matt remained defiant. He confirmed that there was no option for customers to slaughter the turkeys themselves.

He said that farm shop staff have been properly trained and can ensure the animals are killed in a "humane way".He said: "I think the one thing I want to get across is that I don't think there is anything wrong with our proposition.

"I'm not going to remove the post or stop being a farmer because we've had a bit of opposition from vegan groups.

"Our proposition is we farm, we get the meat, we grow it, and then we sell it in our shop.

"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.

"The calls to the staff and the butcher are where I draw the line."

He said he put up his post on Saturday, and said while he meant what he wrote he said it was "tongue in cheek" and thought it would be liked by a few customers.

But in three days it has received 1,700 reactions, 1,400 comments and 989 shares.

It said: "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 2 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."

Among the critics was Susan Phillips who wrote: "How about name that cow or name that pig.

"How sad they try and make it seem normal like a pet dog or cat.

"Keep meat of your plate."

Ben Cooper added: "The ultimate betrayal.

"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?

"How about we just leave them alone and eat something else?"

Marjory Ellen O'Brien "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 enjoy life just like we do. They are not a meal.

"Even if you had the courage to kill them, it shouldn't happen.

"And they definitely shouldn't be just a name on a board.

"Be on the right side of history. Be vegan."

Leanne Hughes wrote: "Murder is murder.

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"You can disassociate yourself from it by changing the word to slaughter but death is death.

"And when it’s caused by someone purposefully killing another being then it is still murder. Wake up."

Ysabel Francis wrote: "This post is vile.

"These turkeys are better than ANY human.

"Choose compassion over killing!!"

But Andrew Clark wrote: "This is great! My school did this and we learned the life cycle of your daily meal.

"My old butcher used to put the name of the cow on the board. You knew where it was from and it's history."

Owen Parker added: "I think between everyone commenting on this post, you don't quite have one braincell between you all!

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"And I'm almost certain you lot skipped the education system, because you clearly have no idea about agriculture!"

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 added: "If you are going to eat meat, I think our way is the best way of doing it - where you can see the animals and then go to the butchers and buy the meat.

"If you are totally anti-meat, then go and start with the huge big factory farms, not the small businesses who do it like we do it.

poll loading Is the 'pick your own turkey' idea a good one? 500+ VOTES SO FAR Yes, people should connect with the food they eat No, people should not eat turkey for Christmas

"It was the bit about naming it was the bit they really didn't like. I guess that's because it brings it home to them that it's a real animal - but that's the whole point.

"That's why we treat them with respect and look after them."

He said people who had left messages of support had been targeted by critics - including a mother who said her autistic son loved the farm, and their sausages.

"They said she was a bad mother - that's the lowest form of criticism and totally unjustified," he said.

"The post has gone really far and now we have their crazy people that have started bombarding the shop and threatening the staff and phoning the shop.

"Actually, what they perhaps don't realise is that they have done us a massive favour.

"The post has gone so far and wide sales have gone through the roof.

"In some regard they have made a rod for their own back.

"Usually we have a real flurry of order the week we launch our Christmas goods.

"That was last week and the week before.

"Then we usually have one or two a day until the next busy season. But we've had at least a dozen today (Mon), so the comments are doing the trick."