Customer nightmare #4: Meat makes patrons see red
Zealots who cringe at the thought of animals being slaughtered have threatened the proprietors of a highly regarded vegan restaurant in Los Angeles for failing to keep the faith. The husband-and-wife team behind Café Gratitude were discovered not only to be eating meat, but also raising animals for food on their farm.
That was too much of a betrayal for fans, leading to public damnation, a boycott and even death threats against Matthew and Terces Engelhart, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
“Leave the animals alone,” Grizelda Thockmorton posted on Café Gratitude’s Facebook page. “They don't want to die any more than you do. There is no spiritual justification for murder.”
The flashpoint was the discovery of a 14-month-old blog post where Terces Engelhart revealed that she and her husband had started eating meat again. It was also discovered that they harvested eggs from the chickens and milk from the cows that lived on the couple’s farms.
Some of the cattle had even been slaughtered, with the meat going into the freezers of the Engelharts and their friends.
The Engelharts defend their choices as personal matters. Outraged patrons have painted it as intolerable hypocrisy.