New Zealand First MP Mark Patterson has lashed out at a vegan protest inside an Auckland supermarket.
Activists stood in front of the meat section at Countdown St Lukes holding signs demanding shoppers stop eating animals on Sunday.
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Video of the event shows one of the organisers, Anna Rippon, shouting at staff when they asked her if she had permission, explaining it was a peaceful protest for the "victims" of the meat industry.
But Patterson isn't pleased with the protest at all and initially tweeted his annoyance.
"What's the world coming to, good law-abiding meat-eaters being harassed by an iron-deficient mob," he said.
Patterson later elaborated on his statement to Newshub, saying he believed customers should be able to get their meat without facing harassment.
"I absolutely support their right to protest but this appeared to be deploying totally uncalled for intimidation of innocent shoppers."
Patterson said he doesn't have a problem with vegans in general, but he doesn't like people trying to aggressively impose their beliefs on others.
Shoppers at St Lukes during the protest appeared to agree with Patterson, with some angrily confronting activists.
"Get that out of my face, I'm disgusted you guys are even here in my supermarket while I'm trying to buy my food," one man said.
The protesters didn't see anything wrong with their actions though. Organiser Deno DV Stock said in video of the event he doesn't see it as extreme.
"I think that the way those animal parts have been put in the supermarket is far more extreme than what we're doing, we're not doing any damage to anything, we're just standing with a sign."
A Countdown spokesperson told Newshub it reserves the right to ask people undertaking protest action to leave stores.
"On this occasion, this request was ignored several times. The police were called to support our team and the protesters left shortly afterwards."
Newshub has contacted the protest's organisers for comment.
Newshub.
