Proud butcher: Mike Fielder
Militant vegans trying to ruin a small butcher by protesting outside actually helped the business by giving it publicity, the owner has told Daily Mail Australia.
Furious protesters lined up outside Tenderwest Meats in Perth’s Belmont Forum on Sunday and shouted at passing customers with a megaphone.
‘They never wanted to die for you,’ the group’s leader yelled while his followers held up signs showing animals in slaughterhouses.
The group was trying to stop people buying and eating meat – but the protest spectacularly backfired.
‘In terms of publicity the protest has been much better for me than it has been for them,’ said Mike Fielder who owns and runs the small, independent shop.
‘Since the protest I have received hundreds of messages of support,’ he added.
The protesters posted a video of their stunt on the Facebook group Direct Action Everywhere – and Mr Fielder chimed in with a sarcastic response.
He commented on the post with a picture of some pork cooking in an oven, and wrote: ‘Here’s a piece of the very same pork cooking for my dinner right now.
‘Please let me know when you’re coming again and I’ll put more on for you. Cheers.’
Explaining why he decided to fight back, he told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I just thought I’d troll them a little bit.
The protesters posted a video of their stunt on the Facebook group Direct Action Everywhere – and Mr Fielder chimed in with a sarcastic response (above)
‘They are coming for me because I’m a small, independent business and an easy target.
‘I don’t have lawyers or large finances behind me so they target me instead of a big company like Coles or Woolies.
‘But they are totally misguided – everything I sell is free range and of the highest quality.’
They are coming for me because I’m a small, independent business and an easy target
Mr Fielder said the protesters had come for him once before. On that occasion he knew they were coming and put up cloths to cover the meat displayed in the windows.
‘That took the wind out of their sails and they left pretty quickly, he said.
‘But this time they ambushed me and they got to make their little scene.’
During the protest, the group’s leader, wearing a white T-shirt, told customers: ‘We are here to shine a light on an inherently cruel industry.’
‘They never wanted to participate in this, they never wanted to die for you,’ the leader said of the animals killed.
‘They died in a gas chamber at six months old – and all they died for is for your simple meal, your simple pleasure, needlessly.’
Personifying the animals, the leader added: ‘There are thousands of babies just around this city being driven to a slaughterhouse.
‘Animals do not have to die for us to survive – we don’t have to be doing this.’
The leader then shouted ‘it’s not food’ and the protesters, in cult-like unison, chanted back ‘it’s violence’.
The protesters gathered at Tenderwest Meats in Perth’s Belmont Forum with signs showing pictures of slaughterhouses
The leader then shouted ‘it’s not food’ and the protesters shouted back ‘it’s violence’. Pictured: Meat on display
He yelled: ‘What do we want? and his supporters replied ‘animal liberation’.
‘When do want it?’ he asked, before the vegans replied ‘now.’
The video was taken by an activist who narrated the action.
She called the display cabinets a ‘display of death’ and said the butchers ‘have no shame in what they do.’
The protesters then laid flowers under the display cabinets to ‘remember’ the animals.
‘We are here to bring light to the lie that animals can be killed and exploited and somehow this is humane,’ said the narrator.
The protesters (pictured) then laid flowers under the display cabinets to ‘remember’ the animals