PETA activists have been spotted on Australia's Gold Coast barbecuing a baby doll ahead of the Easter long weekend.
In a demonstration that lasted for an hour, the plant-based animal rights activists set up shop under the Surfers Paradise sign to encourage those walking past to eat less meat.
The presentation featured a 'chef' grilling a baby on the BBQ, alongside other veggies, while turning them over with a pair of tongs, news.com.au reports.
The barbecue station also read: “Babies Don’t Belong on the BBQ. Leave Lambs Alone!”
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PETA spokesperson Angela Banovic noted the protest was ‘pretty graphic’, ‘realistic’ and left many people ‘repulsed’.
While some onlookers found the demonstration disturbing, Ms Banovic defended it by saying ‘lambs and human infants have the same capacity to feel pain and suffering’.
While speaking with Yahoo! News, Ms Banovic said once people make the ‘connection’ between humans and animals the transition to veganism will make sense.
“To be honest, anyone repulsed by the prospect of chowing down on a human infant should make the connection that eating a baby sheep is equally as appalling,” she said.
She also revealed that while many passersby were stunned, it proved to be effective with some.
“We had one family that came over to speak to us, and the little boy was drinking a McDonald's drink," she said.
“He was just saying that's a baby (on the barbecue), and lambs are baby sheep.
"(His family) even decided that they were going to eat vegan one day a week."
Similarly, in an eye-capturing protest last month, a group of PETA activists also took to the waters of Bondi Beach and demanded unethical mice lab experiments be banned.
According to news.com.au, the demonstrators dressed up as mice and pretended to drown in the ocean while calling for drug manufacturer Eli Lilly to ban forced swim tests.
The mouseketeers held up signs that read ‘Eli Lilly: Ban Forced Swim Tests' and 'Animals Are Not Ours to Experiment On’ as they swam out to Bondi.
Forced swim tests (FST) or ‘behavioural despair tests’ supposedly measure the quality of antidepressant drugs while mice and hamsters are placed into inescapable beakers filling up with water.
Researchers then analyse the animals as they begin to panic and inevitably swim rapidly in desperation to find an exit.
While some animals float, some researchers believe this is a sign of depression, while others indicate it’s a survival mechanism kicking in.
The validity of the test has been widely questioned as many scientists believe it’s not an effective way to trial the quality of antidepressants.
Charisa Bossinakis