Butcher told to 'rot in hell' in apparent protest sign

Mr Rapps said his small shop was the "wrong target" for the protest

A butcher who was left signs wishing "cancer on his family" said he would not be deterred by the message.

Nick Rapps, who runs Molesworths in Frampton Cotterell, found the sign left in an A-board opposite his shop on Saturday.

He believes it was linked to an animal rights protest in nearby Bristol earlier in the day.

The Vegan Society said it did not support insults, and encouraged vegans to share a peaceful message.

Mr Rapps said he was smiling when the photo was taken because, "if they upset me and I get cross then they've won".

However, he said it was upsetting because two of his family members had died from cancer.

'Vegan protesters'

Mr Rapps said: "There's far worse places to protest than a farm shop which sells free range organic meat, instead of intensively-farmed supermarket stuff.

"I'm aware there's a subculture of vegan protesters but nobody deserves to have signs like that outside their shop."

He added: "I did find it funny - one side calling me a murderer and the other side saying they wanted my family to die. I don't want to belittle anybody, but it won't deter me.

"This protest does make me sympathise with the overall vegan community, because it's not doing them any favours, and many of them want to promote a peaceful existence."

The Vegan Society said "veganism is based on kindness and compassion", and that "any extremists are not representative of the movement".

It added: "As much as we sympathise with the activists who allegedly put up the signs, we do not consider this approach to be an effective way to promote veganism as an ethics-driven lifestyle."