PETA has placed posters of dead people near hospitals in a shocking attempt to warn patients off bacon.
But the grim poster campaign has been branded in bad taste after patients and visitors were upset by the images.
It is the latest Peta campaign to backfire badly.
Posters outside medical establishments in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, showed a dead person’s foot with a tag on it and pictures of bacon with the words “It Seems You CAN Live Without Bacon After All. Go Vegan.”
One hospital visitor said the posters had caused upset to families and patients.
He said: “Whether you believe in Peta’s message or not is not the issue.
“This is in such bad taste because they are targeting people who are unwell and having a tough time.
“It is not right.”
Peta claimed that two strips of bacon a day can increase the risk of getting bowel cancer by 21 per cent and quoted work by the American Institute for cancer Research to back up its claim.
But leading experts have hit back pointing out that Peta has misinterpreted the medical data.
The AICR report was not related to bowel cancer research, they said.
Rather, it referred to a cancer of the lower stomach, which is a lot less common.
Kurt Straif, head of the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, said: “For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small.
“This decision doesn’t mean you need to stop eating any red and processed meat. But if you eat lots of it you may want to think about cutting down.”
