Animal rights activists will allow themselves to be branded with a hot iron during a protest in Leeds.
The gruesome stunt is due to be held in the city in March as part of a controversial campaign called 269life.
Three volunteers will have the number 269 permanently branded on their bodies using a specially-designed iron measuring four by two inches.
They have put themselves forward for the searingly-painful ordeal to show their solidarity with the animals that they say are made to suffer in factory farms by the meat, dairy and other industries.
The number 269 was chosen as the symbol for their campaign as a reference to the figure on the ear tag of a male dairy calf that was filmed being readied to be sold for veal or leather.
Campaign supporters were first branded at a demonstration that took place in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv last October.
Now follow-up events are being held on March 21 in cities including London, Buenos Aires, Prague and Melbourne as well as Leeds.
Organisers have yet to announce their chosen venue for the Leeds protest but it will be held in public.
Dozens of people have already signed up to a Facebook group about the event saying they will be attending.
One of the volunteers due to submit themselves to the agony of the branding iron in Leeds is Aran Mathai, who is 22 and from Bedford.
He told the Yorkshire Evening Post that the other two volunteers also live outside of the city but are from the North.
Mr Mathai said: “Something has to be done to show empathy with the animals that are suffering, to show that suffering is suffering, no matter what the species.
“I as a consenting human being have to suffer for this, but the animals don’t consent – they are forced into these situations.
“I am not claiming to be brave, I will worry about the pain and suchlike but what the animals go through in the meat industry, the dairy industry and the egg industry is so much worse.”
Mr Mathai also said that because the branding would be a static demonstration on public land, organisers were under no requirement to inform the police of their plans.
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