A militant vegan campaigner tore into Jeremy Vine on his radio show for his ham sandwich lunch made ‘from the flesh of a dead pig’.
Joey Carbstrong, an Australian ‘celebrity’ vegan activist with tens of thousands of YouTube and Instagram followers, lectured the BBC Radio 2 presenter for the ham sarnie on the table.
The 31-year-old former convict – who describes himself as a ‘vegan educator’ – has come to prominence recently because of his clashes with farmers who he has likened to ‘slave owners’.
The vocal campaigner, from Adelaide in south Australia, is currently touring the UK and Ireland because he has an ‘obligation’ to convert meat eaters to veganism.
He said: ‘If you stand by and watch, that’s akin to standing by and watching someone abuse their wife and not saying anything. If you didn’t intervene, then you become complicit.’
The vegan campaigner clashed with Jeremy Vine after he left a ham sandwich in plain sight
Mr Carbstrong’s appearance on BBC Radio 2 came after Alison Waugh, a trainee farmer who works in Northumberland, said militant vegan protesters had called her a ‘murderer and rapist’ and sent death threats.
He was set to discuss that but was instead distracted by the ham sandwich Vine had brought in for his lunch.
Inspecting it, the former gang member who spent six months in prison, said: ‘I’m a bit upset to see your sandwich has a piece of a pig’s body in there. A dead pig that didn’t want to die.
‘Ham is a euphemism that actually comes from the flesh of a dead pig.’
In response, Vine asked the vegan campaigner: ‘What would you rather call it?’
He replied: ‘I’d like you to call it the dead body of an animal that didn’t want to die.’
Vine then asked him whether the cheese in his sandwich was a problem as well.
Joe Carbstrong, an animal liberation activist, tore into Jeremy Vine for his ham sarnie
Informing the presenter it was, Mr Carbstrong told him: ‘The cheese comes from a mother who had her children taken from her, and had hands shoved in her anus and was artificially inseminated with bull semen.
‘This is probably why vegans would say a diary farmer is akin to a rapist.
‘I wouldn’t call a farmer a rapist. I wouldn’t use any of those words without explaining to them the process and why they involve themselves in these types of practices.’
Following the discussion, Vine said: ‘I obviously won’t eat this sandwich now…I might never eat it. But it’s offensive to see it?’
The militant vegan was criticised on social media for ‘shouting down people’ who didn’t agree with his views
The vegan activist replied: ‘I believe it’s more offensive to actually show me the piece of an animal who didn’t want to die than it is to call someone out for it.’
However Mr Carbstrong was ridiculed on social media for his reaction to Vine’s ham sandwich, with commentators calling him ‘absolutely embarrassing’ and ‘painful to hear’.
Twitter user David Wood said: ‘Stop trying to force your view on the rest of us. What is it with these vegans shouting down anybody with a different view!’
Jack Ovenden wrote: ‘The absolute state of this vegan. Mr High and Mighty banging on about eating meat.’
Another said: ‘I believe that extremism in any walk of life is not a good thing.’
Mr Carbstrong had appeared on the radio show to discuss death threats farmers have been receiving from militant vegans. Protesters have also trespassed and vandalised farms with graffiti.
Threats from the anti-meat movement have become such a problem across the UK that the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers has met counter-terror police to plan a response.
Pig farmers have reported being woken up at night by activists, the National Pig Association said.
Joe Carbstrong, an animal liberation activist, has protested by waiting outside abattoirs and filming animals being moved
Battling vegan activism is one of their main challenges for 2018, the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC2 reported.
There are only about 542,000 vegans in the UK, according to the Vegan Society, but many are now choosing to put pressure on both consumers and farmers.
Mr Carbstrong, 31, who is a lead protester with the animal rights network the Save Movement, protests by waiting outside abattoirs and filming animals being moved.
He uploads the footage online, where he has more than 90,000 followers on Facebook and YouTube.
He has also compared farmers to ‘slave owners’.
Discussing the animals’ treatment, he said: ‘When people go and buy a chicken breast, that breast was torn off an animal that didn’t want to die.
‘If abolitionists didn’t didn’t speak up for what happened back then with the slaves, it would never have been abolished.
‘Slave owners would have been unhappy not having their slaves picking their crop for them. We want their job to not directly involve a victim.
‘The meat, dairy and egg industries should be scared, because the world is waking up to the truth about these horrific industries.’
Who is militant vegan Joey Carbstrong?
The 31-year-old, a former gang member, spent time in prison before turning his life around and turning ‘full vegan’ for both ethical and health reasons
Joey Carbstrong, whose real name is Joey Armstrong, is a ‘celebrity’ vegan activist from Australia with tens of thousands of YouTube and Instagram followers.
The 31-year-old, a former gang member, spent time in prison before turning his life around and becoming ‘full vegan’ for both ethical and health reasons.
After dropping out of school aged 14, Mr Carbstrong fell in with the wrong crowd, eventually turning to ‘more serious, hardcore, organised crime gangs’ and dealing drugs to support his own habit.
He is said to have spent much of his youth using methamphetamine and drinking alcohol.
Aged 26, he spent six months in jail for possession of a firearm, which he had hidden down his trousers while on house detention.
Discussing his gang related crime, he said: ‘I still had compassion in my heart but it was clouded by the environment that shaped me and people around me.’
While holed up in prison he had ‘an epiphany’ and became determined to turn his back on the criminal world.
He said: ‘It was the longest I’d been sober for the past 12 years of my life. I began seeing my life with new eyes. I’d seen all the other prisoners in there and didn’t want to be there, I wanted to leave the gangs.’
Mr Carbstrong turned to the teachings of Dan McDonald, an American advocate for raw food and fasting who formerly had a drug problem.
Following his release from prison he then went ‘full vegan’.
The 31-year-old said: ‘I’d always said that it’s hypocritical to say you love animals – save the whales, dolphins, dogs – but then have a piece of an animal that’s suffered and had a bolt gun to the head on your plate. I was a walking hypocrite…I decided to align my actions and my morals.’
Since then he has become a militant vegan campaigner and has been touring the world to encourage people with his radical message.
He is currently on tour of the UK and Ireland, attending daytime vigils and protests alongside fellow activists.
He hit the headlines this week because of his clashes with farmers, likening them to ‘slave owners’.
He has posted YouTube videos showing him confronting farmers and meat industry workers, saying they ‘should be scared’.