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Thousands of vegans are set to stage a march through central London as part of a global campaign for animal rights.

Activists will descend on the Houses of Parliament next month to “fight animal oppression” and send out the message that “the life of an animal is worth far more than our taste buds.”

Similar marches will take place in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Romania on September 2 in what campaigners are describing as “a consolidated global effort to make the vegan voice heard.”

More than 10,000 people have expressed an interest in attending the event on its official Facebook page.

The march will begin at Achilles Statue in Hyde Park at 12pm and end at the Houses of Parliament.

It is organised by the animal activists group Surge.

Ed Winters, one of the co-founders of Surge, said: “To see this many vegans take to the streets is a humbling sign of the changing attitudes society is having towards the treatment of non-human animals.

“As vegans we stand against all forms of oppression, with no exceptions defined by species. It is time for society to understand that the life of an animal is worth far more than our taste buds.”

It is the second annual Official Animal Rights March and last year, over 2,500 vegans marched through the streets of the capital city, to campaign for animal rights and try to raise the profile of eating a plant-based diet.

The Vegan Society estimates that there are about 542,000 people in Britain that are following a vegan diet, compared with 150,000 ten years ago.