Butchers and farmers say they are living in fear of vegans who have been targeting them across the British countryside. Owners of the UK businesses, including Marlow Butchers in the county of Kent in England, have been recently subjected to death threats and had their storefronts vandalized with spray-painted words like “Stop killing animals! !” and “Go vegan,” The Telegraph reported. “On the internet it has been very threatening,” Wayne Marlow, who runs Marlow Butchers with his father and brother, told Kent Online. “It has got ridiculous — activists from as far away as Australia are getting involved … The internet is the worst thing as not only are they threatening to physically destroy our business, but they are also trying to ruin our reputation online, too, by leaving negative reviews and comments,” Marlow said. Marlow added that the activists are “threatening to smash the windows or petrol bomb the store.” “We live in fear and we’re up worrying at night — they are terrorizing us,” the butcher told the news outlet. The Marlow family said it has reported the threats to police. According to Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance — a British organization that promotes issues related to farming, rural communities and small businesses — meat purveyors have become increasingly popular targets. “There’s been an escalation of attacks on butchers, markets, and even abattoirs and it’s an extension of animal rights campaigns we have seen around other areas, using the same tactics including online abuse,” Bonner told The Telegraph. “They usually attack small independent businesses rather than taking on the big boys — it’s quite cowardly.” Bonner continued: “Social media has been a catalyst for much of this campaigning, both in terms of bringing together international groups and if they find the right independent business, it does bring a lot of pressure on family businesses and farmers.” Bonner called the targeted attacks “personally threatening,” adding that “people feel unsafe.”<doc-sep>Attacks on small businesses by vegan activists are on the rise, according to the Countryside Alliance. Death threats, stoked by social media and encouraged by international groups of activists, have caused butchers and farmers to "live in fear." Marlow Butchers, in, Ashford, Kent, was targeted earlier this month by activists who daubed red paint on the doors and windows of the shop. Since then, the business has been subjected to online abuse. Wayne Marlow, who runs the business with his father and brother, told Kent Online: "On the internet it has been very threatening.<doc-sep>French butchers have issued a plea for police protection against vegans, whom they blame for a series of attacks designed to “spread terror” among meat-lovers. The butchers say they are coming under “physical, verbal and moral" attack from vegans and animal rights groups in the land of the “steak frites”, and warn that animosity against their profession is being fuelled by heavy media exposure to the anti-meat cause. They are asking for the interior minister, Gérard Collomb, to intervene. Their request comes days after a rotisserie in Lille, northern France, was vandalised - the fourth such incident of its kind in a matter of weeks. In the Hauts-de-France of northern France, seven butchers and charcuteries were attacked and sprayed with false blood in April. Several other similar incidents were reported in the southwestern Occitanie region, they said. In a letter to the minister, Jean-François Guihard, president of the French federation of butchers and caterers said: “We are counting on your services and on the support of the entire government to stop as swiftly possible” such attacks. The 18,000 butchers of France were “worried about media overexposure of the vegan way of life”, said the federation chief. Butchers were “shocked” by a section of society that “wishes to impose its way of life, not to mention its ideology, on the vast majority” of meat-eating French people, he added.<doc-sep>Butchers in France have written to the government to ask for police protection from the country’s vegans, accusing them of attacking their shops and trying to end traditional meat-eating culture. The French Federation of Butchers wrote to the interior minister, saying vegans have stoned and defaced butchers’ shop fronts, spraying some with fake blood and graffiti. The letter from federation chief, Jean-François Guihard, said such attacks were a form of terrorism and that the media was fuelling veganism and threatening butchers’ safety. “It's terror that these people are seeking to sow, in their aim of making a whole section of French culture disappear,” he wrote. The federation says France’s 18,000 butchers were increasingly concerned about the “excessive media hype around vegan lifestyles”, and that vegans were trying to “impose their lifestyle, or even their ideology, on the immense majority of the people”. “We count on your services and on the support of the entire government so that the physical, verbal and moral violence stops as soon as possible,” the letter says. Despite the butchers’ concern, vegetarians and vegans still only make up a small proportion of the French population. A 2016 survey estimated that just 3 per cent of the country considered themselves vegetarian, with vegans even fewer in number. In recent months 15 shops have been splashed with fake blood, with seven vandalised in one part of northern France in April. Others have seen windows broken and last year a cheesemonger in Lyon was attacked with the vandals spray-painting the words “milk is murder” and “milk is rape” on the premises. Mr Guihard, who runs a butchery in Brittany, said his members are growing afraid – adding that butchers’ shops are more vulnerable than supermarkets or guarded slaughterhouses. “Of course we do not demand a gendarme in front of each butcher's shop. But the state knows of these tiny groups of vegan extremists, it must take action,” he told Le Parisien newspaper. “For artisans who are most often owners of their business with employees, the threat weighs heavily,” he said. Asked if he was against vegetarianism, Mr Guihard said: “Not at all. They refuse to eat meat. It's their choice, it's not a problem. We just ask that people respect our profession and our customers, which means the vast majority of French people.” Some have speculated the federation is using the small spate of attacks as a marketing opportunity. But amid falling meat sales in France, farmers’ groups have also appealed to the government recently, calling for laws to protect the status of meat and demanding the end of the terms “sausage”, “steak”, “fillet” and “bacon”, for non-meat products. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. 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Vegan protestors RALLY against butchers in Paris The butchers claim they are coming under “physical, verbal and moral" attack and warn the animosity is being fuelled by heavy media exposure to the anti-meat cause. They have now called on French interior minister Gérard Collomb to intervene and ensure they are given adequate protection. Their plea for help comes a month after Britain's Countryside Alliance (CA) warned that attacks on small businesses by vegan activists were on the rise in the UK The 18,000 butchers of France are worried about media overexposure of the vegan way of life Jean-François Guihard The CA warned death threats, stoked by social media and encouraged by international groups of activists, have caused butchers and farmers to "live in fear”. The French butcher contacted Mr Collomb after a rotisserie in the northern French town of Lille was vandalised in the fourth such attack of its kind in recent weeks. Animal welfare activists also targeted a butcher, a fishmonger and a restaurant selling meat dishes in Lille last month. On each occasion the vandals smashed windows and scrawled the words “No to speciesism” on the shopfront. The term “speciesism” suggests mistreating non-human species is a form of discrimination comparible with racism or sexism. French butchers are seeking protection from vegan extremists Animal rights activists on the march in Paris In the Hauts-de-France region of northern France, seven butchers and charcuteries were attacked and sprayed with false blood in April. Several other similar incidents have been logged in the southwestern Occitanie region. Jean-François Guihard, president of the French federation of butchers and caterers, has written to the minister asking for protection. A butcher's shop in Marlow, Bucks, was vandalised by vegans earlier this year