Vegans are attacking French butchers for propagating “meat-eating culture,” which is apparently a thing now.
According to the BBC, French butchers have been writing to their government to request protection from “militant vegans” -- which may be the least intimidating description, but it’s actually a problem.
Meat shops have been stoned, defaced, and 15 shops were even splattered with fake blood.
About 18,000 different butchers signed the letter expressing concerns over “excessive media hype around vegan lifestyles,” and that vegans are aiming to “impose their lifestyle on the immense majority of people.”
“Attacks like this, acts of violence against businesses are new in France,” said Pierre Sans, a veterinary professor at the University of Toulouse, told the New York Times. “We have seen it against slaughterhouses and laboratories, but towards a business that is selling legal foodstuffs, it’s rather shocking.”
It’s not even just the butcher shops. A French cheese shop owner told The Guardian that his shop was vandalized with the words “milk is rape” and “milk is murder” painted on the front.
Sébastien Arsac of the non-violent L214 campaign group against animal exploitation blames the threat to butchers on the 50 percent of people who were considering cutting down on meat, not the 5 percent of people who are already vegetarians.
Some vegan activists in France are literally nuts. Earlier this year, an activist was arrested after a Facebook post saying that a jihadist killing a French butcher would be “justice.”
With a decline in the meat market, France’s farmers have been lobbying to prevent anti-meat legislation like the proposal to require schools to provide a non-meat option at lunch for students once a week.