vegan protest toronto

Vegan protesters returning to Toronto restaurant over ducks

Toronto's newly-formed Grassroots Anti-Speciesism Shift organization will be hitting up Dundas West once again this Saturday night to protest the killing of animals for food.

GRASS is best known for starring in a viral video that features Antler Restaurant owner Michael Hunter cutting up a deer leg in the front window of his restaurant.

The militant vegans had already been protesting Antler, which is known for serving wild game meat, before the story of Hunter's deer leg stunt blew up, but they have since increased the frequency and scope of their protests.

May 5 will mark the 11th vegan protest outside Antler in just a few months.

Unlike previous demonstrations, the group hasn't expressed the intention of moving on to any other establishment after Antler. What we do know is that the theme of this week's protest is ducks.

"Antler speciesism awareness, a duck is a dog" reads the name of Saturday's event on Facebook.

The event's description mentions "Antler anger," referring to the many people who have made concious efforts to harass the vegans (both online and in real life) since the story broke.

"Why are people so angry?" asks GRASS on Facebook. "These animals are forced onto slaughter trucks, unloaded at a slaughterhouse, on their last day of life. They are bred to be killed, wild animals who have never run free in the wild."

The group says it "must keep going," not despite the backlash but because of it.

Lead photo by

Jeremy Gilbert


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