Picture: DxE Brighton

The protestor, who was outside the Brighton Centre where the annual Vegfest UK event was being held, was confronted by members of the Brighton chapter of Direct Action Everywhere, an animal rights group, holding ‘it’s not food, it’s violence and ‘meat is murder’ signs.

Tim Barford, Vegfest UK manager, said: “We knew about the planned protest and were expecting 30 protestors – 3 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.

Picture: DxE Brighton

“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.”

VegfestUK Brighton is a two day event taking place on Saturday, March 23 and Sunday, March 24, at the Brighton Centre.

The festival, which is Brighton’s best-attended vegan event, entered its 11th year in 2019, and is set to attract around 10,000 attendees over the weekend.

A member of DxE Brighton (Direct Action Everywhere) added: “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.

Picture: DxE Brighton

“It goes to show what we already know, that people don’t like seeing the faces of the animals they eat. Eating animals is eating a product of torture and death. Why is animal abuse so normalised when it’s in a burger but shocking when we see the being behind the burger?”

One of DxE Brighton’s organisers added: “We live in such a speciesist society we often forget who we are eating and I think today serves as a very visual reminder of the victims behind our choices.

“We call ourselves an animal loving nation but our actions don’t reflect that as most people eat and wear animals every day.

“Over 10 million pigs are killed a year in UK slaughterhouses, they are usually killed at just five to six months old.

“Animal rights activists, at the beginning of this month, again exposed how horrific pig farms are in this country when they occupied and live-streamed inside a standard British pig farm showing dead piglets and their mothers unable to move in farrowing crates at ‘Meat the Victims UK’.

“There’s nothing just about what we do to animals and no humane way to exploit and take their lives”.