Two British animal rights campaigners, wearing only bikinis made of lettuce, have urged Kazakhs to stop eating horses and go vegetarian.Kazakhstan's national cuisine is almost entirely meat-based, and horse sausage and boiled sheep's head are considered delicacies. Lamb and offal are part of the staple diet and the activists braced freezing temperatures in the country's largest city, Almaty, to push home their message.
Kazakhstan has recently been made famous by Sacha Baron Cohen's spoof TV reporter Borat.
It has led campaigners from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to urge the public to go veggie. One of the activists, Yvonne Taylor, 35, said: "Whereas Borat is ridiculing the country, we're trying to come here with a positive message. "We're saying that going vegetarian is the best thing people can do for their health and to stop animals suffering."
Wearing sequined green bikinis made of plastic lettuce leaves, Taylor and colleague Lucy Groom, 27, waved placards and posed for photographs.
Passers-by gave them a mixed reaction. One teacher said: "I guess they are trying to encourage kids to eat their greens, which is okay." But a pensioner was less impressed, saying the only problem with meat in Kazakhstan was it was now too expensive.