Citing ‘Anti-Meat’ Sentiment, French Butchers Seek Police Protection, by Alissa Rubin.

French butchers say they’ve had enough. Not only must they confront media coverage of the “vegan way of life,” now they say they are under assault.

After a series of small but unprecedented incidents, the butchers federation says its members need protection from militants who have broken windows, thrown fake blood and sprayed graffiti on their shops. In a letter to the French Interior Ministry, the butchers wrote that “physical, verbal, and moral violence” against them was “neither more nor less than a form of terrorism.”

The letter may be a touch hyperbolic — and French vegan organizations are quick to defend their movement as nonviolent — but it has struck a chord with many French who dislike being told what they should eat.