VEGANS and veggies dressed in animal costumes have been campaigning to get shoppers to ditch their Christmas turkey and have a 'veggie feast' instead.

Members of Worcestershire Vegans & Veggies dressed in animal costumes on Saturday to distribute hundreds of leaflets to Worcester city centre shoppers, urging them to have a 'compassionate Christmas'.

The group's communications officer Ronald Lee said: "We gave out leaflets from national animal protection group Animal Aid urging people to show compassion to animals during the festive season 'by giving turkey a miss and having a veggie feast instead'.

"Most people don't realise that almost all of the 15 million turkeys slaughtered annually in the UK are reared in appalling factory farm conditions and spend their short lives in cramped conditions in large, windowless sheds.

"These birds have a natural life span of approximately 10 years, yet they are slaughtered at just three to six months old.

"There is no need for turkeys or any other creatures to undergo such cruelty and killing, because we can all live healthily on a vegan diet without consuming meat, fish, eggs and dairy."

The leaflets also mentioned other ways of showing compassion at Christmas, such as by only buying cosmetics not tested on animals.