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A Toronto chef, apparently exasperated at an animal rights protest outside his restaurant, carried what appeared to be a leg of raw venison to the front windows facing the sidewalk. As the protesters watched, he took a knife and began separating the meat from the bone.

As he worked, one of the protesters videoed the scene and gave frantic commentary: “To taunt the activists,” said the man behind the camera in a video posted online and picked up by BlogTO, “he has brought the leg of a recently murdered deer to this dining area.”

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Toronto chef butchers, eats deer leg in front of animal rights protesters outside his restaurant Back to video

Michael Hunter, the chef and owner of Antler Kitchen and Bar, didn’t look at the protesters, didn’t say anything. Some police officers on hand for the protest entered the restaurant to speak with him – though Toronto police deny they asked him to stop what he was doing. “It’s his restaurant he can do what he wants, really,” Sgt. Philip Townley said.

Photo by Marni Jill Ugar

Hunter finished cutting, put the meat in a pan and headed back to the kitchen. In half an hour or so, he returned with an impressively seared steak — perhaps of the same venison he had butchered — on a white plate, unaccompanied. It was the middle of Friday night dinner service, just after 8 p.m., and here was the chef, at the front of the restaurant, sitting alone and eating.