Cops' breakfast fry-up sparks vegan outrage

Fry-up supporters came out in force to support police, telling any offended vegans to get a life. Photo / Twitter

Sigh. Now even the good old-fashioned fatty breakfast fry-up is apparently a politically correct minefield.

Police in Wales in the UK have been criticised online for sharing a picture of their breakfast fry-up because it could "offend vegans".

The photo tweeted by the North Wales Police Rural Crime Team, which lovingly showcased a traditional breakfast spread of sausages, bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms and toast, was proudly captioned: "Not bad eh ... not one egg broken ... let the team meeting begin."

Most saw the humour. But Twitter user Diana saw red — as red as the tomato ketchup in the picture — saying the post was "thoughtless". She suggested cops should "not post breakfast pics that offend vegetarian/vegan followers".

While Diana was clearly not amused, nor were the fry-up supporters — who came out in force to support the police, basically telling Diana — and any offended vegans — to get a life.

Others were more concerned about the lack of hash browns, or wanted to apply to join the team to cash in on the breakfasts. Before long, the North Wales Police Rural Crime Team was besieged by media intrigued with the PC fiasco, and was keeping its humour.

The Twitter feed was updated: The original picture of the fry-up now had a line of tomato sauce under the "offending" breakfast added, with the accompanying tweet beginning: "At some point you have to draw a line under it."

At some point you have to draw a line under it.....

Good morning everyone. Bore da.

Thursday already and today hopefully we will get chance to broadcast live, but first I have to review the last 24 hrs. pic.twitter.com/SIO0pnM5Kg

— Tîm Troseddau Cefn Gwlad HGC/ NWP Rural Crime Team (@NWPRuralCrime) January 4, 2018

By now, the attention was making it look like the local cops were being distracted from their police work, so the team's Twitter puppeteer — crime team manager Rob Taylor (he owns the ketchup in the "offending" picture) — decided to take a step back from social media for a bit.

Time to correct some news... pic.twitter.com/k7dpF9np9R

— Tîm Troseddau Cefn Gwlad HGC/ NWP Rural Crime Team (@NWPRuralCrime) January 2, 2018

He said the account received "1.9 million interactions per month," leaving many officers having to engage with posts "on [their] own time and on days off".

"It's becoming overwhelming for us to actually reply," he said in a video post.

He said the team would be reducing the amount of comments they respond to on the Twitter, but insisted the scaling back of interaction had nothing to do with vegans "getting upset by breakfasts".

Reporters at news.com.au have been unable to confirm if the officers who may have offended the vegans were lashed with a piece of limp lettuce.