The owner of the Wellington vegan cafe and bakery Sweet Release has shared a woman's explosive rant against their dietary principles.
An elderly woman walked into the bakery and allegedly started abusing staff, referring to them as "'vaygun' f***wits" and lecturing the cafe's owner, Kristine Bartley, about the dietary dangers of veganism.
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Bartley managed to record some of the woman's outburst, posting the clip to Sweet Release's Twitter on Tuesday, 30 July. The clip has now been viewed over 5,500 times.
Bartley claims on Twitter the woman started her rant with several racist remarks and expletives, calling her staff "f***wits" and referring to Bartley as "an Asian f***wit". She also claims the woman told her to "go home".
Bartley is then heard threatening to upload the footage to social media, to which the elderly woman replies, "Good, post it. Thank you."
"Posted with her permission," Bartley joked in the video's caption.
"But honestly... my hands are shaking and I feel like bursting into tears. This lady came in from the street and just started yelling at my team, calling us f***wits just for existing as a vegan cafe.
"Thanks for taking all my f***s for the day."
The woman claims her comments were "not abuse" although she does admit to calling the staff 'f**kwits'.
"You're not getting the tryptophans to keep your brain in good order, so what else can you expect?" the woman defends her profanity. "You get it in broccoli but you would have to eat a kilo a day."
Tryptophan is an amino acid found in both meat and plant-based sources of protein.
"Put it on social media, I hope people learn that [being] vegan is dangerous because you're cutting out essential amino acids that occur only in red meat along with vitamin B6 and also iron..." the woman continues.
In actual fact, a dish of beans and rice makes a complete vegan protein, and vegans can supplement their diet with protein powders to achieve all the essential amino acids.
The video was also uploaded to Sweet Release's Facebook, accompanied by an emotional comment. The video has been viewed almost 10,000 times on the platform.
"I work too damn hard for racist, anti vegans to walk through my damn business to abuse me freely... Now, you have a glimpse of the behind the scenes I have to deal with on the daily," says the comment.
Bartley and the team have received comments of support, although others have critiqued the decision to publish the footage, claiming the woman "seems to be unwell".
Newshub have reached out to Kristine Bartley for comment.
Newshub.
