Vegan animal activists were shocked at how a Toronto restaurant owner got revenge against them for protesting his business for weeks — and they recorded their own horrified reaction.

Here's what happened

On Friday, animal rights activists were protesting Antler, a restaurant specializing in "local seasonal and wild foods" including boar, duck and deer. It was their fourth protest targeting the restaurant.

But one of the co-owners turned the tables on them when he whipped out a deer leg and started butchering it on a table in full view of the vegan protesters.

Michael Hunter, who is also a chef, "brought out an entire animal leg and started cutting it up right in the window on a table reserved for diners," according to the protesters.

"Once the deer was cooked, Michael Hunter, owner of Antler, sat back down at the window to eat the dead deer," said one of the protest organizers, who opined that he was taunting them with his carnivorous ostentatiousness.

In a longer video, according to BlogTO, police can be seen speaking to Hunter, but they walk away with smiles, apparently finding the situation humorous, and not criminal.

Here's the video of their shocked reaction:

Vegan protesters were shocked after a #Toronto chef responded to their protest by carving up an animal right in front of them https://t.co/CY0zU0a1By pic.twitter.com/Mj04bnzxVp — blogTO (@blogTO) March 27, 2018

"I'm not sure if the police were telling the owner to stop for trying to anger the protesters, or for ethical or health & safety violations," said another animal activist. "I just think this is very disturbing."

Hunter reacted to the protest, writing, "our identity as a restaurant is well known throughout the city as is our ethical farming and foraging initiatives."

"While we would much rather not be the focus of these protests, we are not at all surprised," he added. "We simply want to carry on running a restaurant and have a peaceful environment where our guests can enjoy their food."