Animals rights activists are encouraging soccer icon David Beckham to quit eating meat after he hosted a banquet serving grouse and a pig's head.

The retired sports star launched his first ever alcohol brand, Haig Club whiskey, in Edinburgh, Scotland earlier this month (Oct14) at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

The feast included exotic meat dishes, but officials at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) have urged him to follow the lead of his former soccer teammate Phil Neville, who recently turned vegetarian.

A spokesman for Peta tells Wenn, "Becks, a good father and family man, would surely have thought twice about the menu for his whiskey launch if he had known what wonderful and loving parents pigs are when their beloved youngsters aren't stolen away from them for someone's dinner plate.

"We urge David, an ambassador for wildlife-protection societies, to extend his compassion and respect for life and parenthood to all species. Perhaps Peta's video which features his good friend and former teammate Phil Neville explaining how he has never felt better since going vegetarian might encourage him to give a humane plant-based diet a go."