ANIMAL rights extremists have branded their bodies with red hot irons in shocking scenes during a street protest.
The painful practice – which appears to have been a form of initiation – was protesting the branding of cattle.
Members of the 269 Life group carried out the shocking ceremony during an anti-meat protest in France.
Stunned onlookers witnessed the half naked members grimace and scream in pain as the red hot iron was applied to their arms and legs.
The vegan activists also soaked themselves in fake blood as they willingly lined up to be branded.
Footage from the protest showed them screaming in pain as the hot iron was placed on their skin, leaving them with first-degree burns and permanent scarring.
Some protestors were also chained and “tortured” in an attempt to replicate animal sufferings.
One of the protestors said: “I made this choice because animals are tragically following this tragic before being killed. So this is a way to honour them.
“Yes, it’s painful but I think this is nothing to what all animals face daily.”
The took place in the Place de la Republique in Paris.
The group said said it wanted to stop people from “putting corpses in their mouths.”
Onlookers were repulsed by the barbaric act.
One said: “I don’t care what your views are, there has to be something wrong if you are prepared to mutilate your body to make a point.
“Yes it is shocking but it is not going to help animals.”
The anarchist charity took its name after a rescued calf that was due to be slaughtered at an abattoir in Israel and that wore a tag through his ear with the number 269 on it.
The organisation is operating throughout the world and says their movement is about demanding “animal liberation”.
