Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) are planning a demonstration outside Katie Mac's, in Pennywell.

The popular chippy hit the national headlines last month after the Echo revealed its quirky French-influenced dish.

Now Peta is using the publicity as a springboard for its campaign against what it calls the "cruel slaughter" of the amphibians.

The charity's special projects co-ordinator, Rose Glover, has been rounding up support for the Sunderland protest, which is due to take place in the next few weeks.

"Europe's main supplier of frog legs is Indonesia, where villagers collect frogs from swamps," she said.

"The villagers bundle up to 300 frogs together in bags before taking the animals to a local cutting centre for slaughter.

"At the centre, they're held down in groups and sliced in half through the belly while they're still conscious.

"After the frogs' top halves are discarded on a pile, the animals can take up to an hour to die."

A host of celebrities including Twiggy, Sir Paul McCartney and reality TV star Kelly Osbourne work closely with the animal charity.

Peta supporter Carol O'Brien, from the Sunderland charity Animal Crackers, will join the protest.

The 53-year-old, from Southwick, said the group's work has changed her life.

She added: "I'm a vegetarian and after seeing how dairy cows are treated I don't even drink milk any more."

Campaigners believe the growing trade in frogs' legs, coupled with habitat destruction, climate change, pollution and disease, could cause force some frog species into extinction.

There is nothing to suggest that Katie Mac's gets its frogs' legs from a source which treats them inhumanely.

Owner Katie McMullan said she was not aware of the plans for a protest, but revealed she had received an anonymous letter against the sale of frogs' legs.