Reform UK has branded animal rights group Peta "anti-British" after it scolded Nigel Farage for an April Fools' Day stunt in which he was given a bulldog "tattoo".
The Reform boss had sat down to receive a temporary branding at Pennyroyal Tattoo Studio in St Neots as he launched his party's local election campaign for Cambridgeshire - prompting a stern letter from Peta.
The group's founder Ingrid Newkirk has written to Farage warning that bulldogs suffer from a range of breathing difficulties - and has told the Brexit heavyweight to steer clear of using the British icon animal in his campaigns in the future.
"You know better than most that the public is influenced by what it sees depicted in popular culture, so I have an extraordinary ask," Newkirk wrote.
Farage had sat down to receive a temporary branding at Pennyroyal Tattoo Studio in St Neots as he launched his party's local election campaign for Cambridgeshire
PA
"Will you please decide not to use images of bulldogs in any future campaign messaging, so we can move on from that image as defining Britishness, when I hope it certainly does not."
But now, Reform has come out fighting - with chief whip Lee Anderson slapping down Peta's concerns as "woke nonsense".
Anderson told GB News: "Who do Peta think they are to dictate what 'Britishness' is? A British bulldog tattoo is a tribute to the animal, not an insult.
"This is exactly the kind of woke nonsense that Reform UK will put an end to - counterproductive, anti-British, and downright condescending.
LATEST ON REFORM UK:
'Who do Peta think they are to dictate what 'Britishness' is? A British bulldog tattoo is a tribute to the animal, not an insult,' Lee Anderson fumed
PA"Reform UK stands firmly by British traditions - especially one of our favourites, the British bulldog.
"We support the ethical treatment of all animals, and as for Peta, we suggest they develop a thicker skin and sense of humour."
Elsewhere in Peta's letter, Newkirk had warned that bulldogs are "Frankendogs" which have been "purposely engineered to have extremely squashed snouts and small heads, physical anomalies that cause a plethora of quite serious and regrettable health issues".
"The way they have been bred is causing them debilitating deformities, their breathing so laboured that they make us look like a nation of wheezing weaklings," she added.
WOKE ANIMAL RIGHTS PROTESTS - READ NEXT:
- PETA campaigner bizarrely claims it is 'speciesist' to NOT put dogs on a vegan diet: 'Just unnatural!'
- Lewis Hamilton told to 'wake up' as PETA issues scathing statement condemning F1 star following holiday snaps
- Woke animal campaigners tell British fairgrounds to STOP using horses on carousels in exploitation row
PICTURED: Nigel Farage's temporary bulldog tattoo
PA
"Such 'Breathing Impaired Breeds' cannot draw enough air into their narrowed nostrils and often must breathe through their mouth, which causes them to snort, snore, and gasp.
"This is not simply uncomfortable - one veterinary surgeon likened it to 'trying to breathe through a really narrow straw' - it is sometimes fatal, resulting in heart failure, suffocation or heat stroke.
"British bulldogs' features also make them susceptible to eye and skin complaints and jaw deformities.
"Unsurprisingly, the Royal Veterinary College warns that British bulldogs are twice as likely to have health problems as other breeds and recommends that 'urgent action' be taken regarding their health."
