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Vegan campaigners have accused Extinction Rebellion’s ecowarriors of cutting holes in their banner.

Friendsnotfood draped a banner saying ‘fight climate change with diet change, go vegan’ across a bridge over the M32 at 9am on Saturday (July 27).

The sign, visible to traffic heading towards Cabot Circus, bore the logo of Extinction Rebellion (XR) – an environmental protest group which caused chaos by blocking city centre routes earlier this month.

But shortly after the banner was put in place, holes were cut into it, removing the XR logo.

Friendsnotfood activist Angus Lancaster believes XR is responsible.

'Hypocritical'

He said: “Extinction Rebellion, who have been blocking the roads in Bristol and around the UK, have been disrupting regular people's lives, but they themselves mostly ignore the fact that veganism is the greatest thing that we can do.

“Many people think it is hypocritical and disingenuous to talk about solutions to climate change without veganism.”

Friendsnotfood, which has 3,500 supporters on Facebook, put up 50 similar banners in towns and cities across the UK on Saturday.

“About 10 of the banners around the country were damaged or removed after local XR groups asked that they be taken down or the XR logos be taken down,” said Mr Lancaster.

The campaigner said he spoke with XR members after Friendsnotfood issued a Facebook statement about the Bristol banner.

He added: “Some of them said not to put Extinction Rebellion on it, and others said they were OK with it.

“But it was too late to cut it out. We asked Extinction Rebellion members if they had anything they wanted to add to the banner, and they didn't."

A positive message

Mr Lancaster said the sign was meant to convey a positive message to tie in with the work of XR.

He continued: “It was aimed at people interested in XR and wondering what they could do to help the environment. One thing they can do is go vegan.”

XR says anyone who follows its 10 core principles – including values such as a “shared vision for change” – can take action in its name.

Mr Lancaster believes the banner was in line with XR’s principles and has questioned why it was damaged.

A Friendsnotfood spokesman said: “We would be very keen to sit down with someone from Extinction Rebellion to properly understand their stance on veganism and animal agriculture subsides etc.

“We believe that you cannot claim to be an informed environmentalist if you continue to fund animal agriculture by eating meat and dairy.”

The University of Oxford found last year that a vegan diet could reduce an individual's carbon footprint from food by up to 73 per cent.

XR has been approached for comment.

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