Animal rights group PETA is urging the Royal Highland Show in the north of Scotland to ditch animal displays in favour of turnip beauty and potato-sculpting competitions.

This is Scotland's largest agricultural event and showcases some of the country's finest food and rural-themed events.

Welcoming around 200,000 people each year, the show includes a number of animal-related events such as sheep shearing and cow parades.

However, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have called these practices "outdated".

Ahead of this year's Royal Highland Show, the organisation has written a letter to Jim Warnock, chair of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS).

PETA calls on Royal Highland Show to become 'vegan event'

In a blog post, PETA UK said: "Currently, the show involves over 6,500 non-consenting animals who are tied up, pulled around, roughly handled, and forced to compete in dangerous show jumping.

"A vegan event, in contrast, could feature fun, family-friendly activities such as a vegan haggis-eating contest, a turnip beauty pageant, and a potato-sculpting competition.

"Instead of outdated cow parades, cruel sheep shearing, and food that has been cut or expelled from an animal's body, the new Royal Highland Grow can celebrate Scotland's hard-working plant-based farmers and delicious, locally produced vegan fare."

On top of the letter, the group has even created an alternative logo for the event, featuring cute mascots "Neep and Tattie".

Despite these proposals, the RHASS has blasted the letter as a "misrepresentation" of how the event operates.

RHASS says PETA call "reflects a lack of understanding" of Scottish agriculture

Andrew Laidlaw, RHASS chief, added: "This reflects a lack of understanding of what is required for good animal health, wellbeing and the importance of Scottish agriculture.

"I can only assume that this is to grab media attention, however while most will see through this for what it is, it has the potential to further undermine our proud agricultural sector and our farmers who work 24/7 to feed our nation with a wide choice of fruit, vegetables, dairy and meat for the many millions who choose to make that part of their diet."

The National Farmers Union Scotland also said that the event is a "hugely important economic platform for food and drink, which is the nation's biggest manufacturing sector, directly and indirectly supporting 360,000 jobs".

This comes as PETA cited a University of Oxford study which found that global temperatures could rise by more than 1.5C (even with fossil fuels cut out) due to the emissions associated with food production.

The Royal Highland Show 2023 is taking place in Islington near Edinburgh from June 22 to 25.