A protester who was filmed eating a raw pig's head outside a vegan festival has said veganism is "human cruelty".

YouTuber Sv3rige, who has 65,000 subscribers, was surrounded by pro-vegan activists waving "meat is murder" placards outside VegFest in Brighton as he ate the flesh.

Organisers of the festival said the man had been part of a planned demonstration by carnivores.

Sv3rige, who is also known as Gatis, said he took bites out of the pig's head in a protest against veganism because "it is human cruelty".

Explaining his actions, he told Sky News: "We did it - it was eight of us - because veganism is malnutrition and you can't get over 15 nutrients from plants and some of us are ex-vegans who got sick because of it."


Warning: Graphic image of incident below

Image: The incident happened outside VegFest in Brighton. File pic

Some meat-eating members of the public who saw his protest said they were sickened by "seeing the faces of the animals they eat".

VegFestUK manager Tim Barford, 55, said he was aware about a planned protest and was expecting 30 protesters.

He told the Brighton and Hove Independent: "Three turned up, which was slightly sad for them and reminiscent of a Nigel Farage march.

"But they proceeded to upset kids and members of the public, and with that in mind, the police arrived, gave them a warning and sent them packing.

"What was interesting was that we had meat-eating members of the public saying that this revolting spectacle had encouraged them to give up eating meat - so it seems the anti-vegan protest actually encouraged people to go vegan."

Image: An anti-vegan protester was filmed taking bites out of a pig's head outside VegFest. Pics: DxE Brighton

One witness, Ellie Fleming, tweeted: "There was a man eating a pig's head outside of VegFest in Brighton. He's an anti-vegan, but hilariously he's helping vegans by reminding the public that their meal had a face."

She told Sky News that the protester was seen speaking to the festival's security guard in a "heated manner".

The move comes after a number of protests by vegans at restaurants that serve meat across the city.

Shortly after the incident, a member of Direction Action Everywhere said: "A lot of everyday people walking past are also repulsed by the sight of a pig's head which is interesting as most of these people eat pigs as well.

"It goes to show what we already know, that people don't like seeing the faces of the animals they eat."