VEGAN activists took to the streets of Oxford in an effort to convince meat and dairy eaters to change their habits.

Members of Oxford Vegan Action and Animal Justice Project took their ‘Lifeline’ campaign - featuring hard-hitting videos and a largely silent group of poster-holding demonstrators - to the city centre on Saturday.

The group said they had positive conversations with countless passersby about their nationwide campaign, which is backed by a number of minor celebrities, including the actress behind Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, Evanna Lynch.

They asked the public where they ‘draw the line’ when it comes to killing and raising animals for food, and focussed their efforts on students, with young people thought to be more open to veganism.

The two groups joined forces for the demonstration on Cornmarket Street, where they handed out vegan literature and showed footage taken from inside British farms, slaughterhouses and laboratories.

Ayrton Cooper, Animal Justice Project’s lifeline campaigner, said: “As a thriving and forward-thinking city, Oxford is the perfect location for our vegan street action.

“The responses we’ve received from both students and members of the public have been overwhelmingly favourable - with many saying they had already been considering switching to a vegan diet because of concerns mainly about the suffering of animals. Veganism is no longer seen as a fad diet for the few - it is a modern and exciting lifestyle that is catching on rapidly with the younger generations."

Irish actress Evanna Lynch added: “Campaigns such as Lifeline are succeeding in opening people’s eyes about what we do to animals.”

More than 3.5 million British people - seven per cent of the population - now reportedly identify as vegan, with 42 per cent aged 15 to 34.

Amid environmental concerns about meat and dairy production, it is thought that the number of vegans has increased by 360 per cent in a decade, allowing campaigners to claim that it is the UK’s ‘fastest-growing lifestyle movement’.

However, last week, climate minister Claire Perry praised local meat producers and warned against forcing people to choose a particular diet. She also raised eyebrows by refusing to say whether she agreed that meat production needed to fall.