DURBAN - A group of vegan boys who have beef with meat eaters were out in full force in the Hillcrest area last week where they targeted two popular restaurants and spray-painted their entrances with the words "meat is murder".
The boys, who are being dubbed the “vegan vigilantes”, wrote the words “Meat is Murder” on the walls of the Chilli Plum Bistro and Butcher Block restaurants.
Ursula Haupt, the owner of the Chilli Plum Bistro, said the boys had been captured on camera, but the footage was not being released publically because she believed they were minors.
“You can see from the footage that they’re quite small in size. They were wearing white face masks, beanies and hoodies when they got up to mischief. We have not opened charges because we think these were children and children sometimes do silly things,” said Haupt.
Manager of the Butcher Block, Surge Bechard said they had chosen not to open charges.
Haupt said if the boys were to return, she would definitely go to the police.
“If anything, what they’ve made my restaurant more popular than before. We were a fully vegan restaurant when we first opened three years ago but the market couldn’t sustain itself so we had to change our menu,” said Haupt.
She said their tactics were silly because it made no difference to meat-eaters.
“Nobody has become vegan because of what they’ve done. In fact, I had to use oven-cleaner to remove the spray paint from the restaurant’s window and that cleaner was tested on animals,” she remarked.
The picture of the incidents went viral on Facebook.
One of the restaurants that came under attack from the dubbed 'vegan vigilantes'.
On Butcher Block’s Facebook page, the restaurant posted:
“To those who have beef with us, we totally appreciate and value your opinion (and high rise writing skills) but don’t stress, we have no beef with you! There are some excellent vegetarian and vegan options in the greater Durban area for those unable to find something to their taste on our menu.” The post was shared more than 450 times.
Bechard also said the incident had made more customers flock to Butcher Block.
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SUNDAY TRIBUNE