- Tesco has bowed to pressure from animal welfare campaigners
- Stopped the sales of turtles for the dinner table at its stores in China
- Supermarket giant has been selling the live turtles for eight years
- Said it stopped as it is 'not in line with our approach on animal welfare’
October 2015 | Updated: 19:18 EST, 13 October 2015
Tesco
has abandoned the sale of turtles for the dinner table at its stores in
China where they were packed alive into plastic bags or butchered in
front of customers.
The company has bowed to pressure from animal welfare campaigners who accused the retailer of putting profit before animal welfare.
The
Daily Mail has highlighted how in some instances the wriggling turtles
were picked from tanks and triple wrapped in plastic bags where they
survived for an
Tesco has bowed to pressure from animal welfare campaigners and stopped the sale of turtles for the dinner table
At
the same time, soft-shelled turtles – a popular Chinese delicacy priced
at £5 - were killed in front of customers by having their heads chopped
off.
The
retailer has been selling the live turtles since 2007, however the
company said yesterday that the trade has stopped because ‘this is not
in line with our approach on animal welfare’.
Two UK-based groups Viva and One World Wildlife have been campaigning for Tesco to stop the trade.
Viva
said: ‘Tesco previously ignored reptile experts’ evidence of cruelty
and statements that the trade in turtles contributed to the decimation
of wild stocks.
‘This
cruel trade in live animals would have never been acceptable in
Britain, yet presumably these profits came back to fill Tesco’s coffers
in this country.
‘So
we welcome the chain finally making the ethical move to stop selling
live turtles in their stores in China. It shows that sustained consumer
pressure really does work.’
Spokesman
for One World Wildlife, Dominic Neate, said: ‘We may think of turtles
as pets like kittens and puppies, but Tesco staff butchered them in
front of shoppers’ eyes, or wrapped them live in plastic, unable to
breathe, advising that it was best to eat them within the hour.
In
2013, the Daily Mail saw how the turtles were being sold at Tesco
stores in Beijing that had been visited by David Cameron during a
previous UK trade mission.
In
one, members of staff in white uniforms were standing around the meat
and fish counters where tanks held live turtles, fish, bull frogs and
terrapins.
One
caught a turtle in a pair of 10-inch metal tongs and wrapped it in
three thin plastic bags. The turtle desperately fought to get out of the
bag until it was returned to the customer service desk.
At the Fengtai East branch, a member of staff hacked at a soft shell turtle for seven minutes, trying to chop its head off.
The
middle-aged staff member turned with an impatient expression, and
snapped: ‘Look, I’ll let you know when it’s done. The head won’t come
out.’
The
Daily Mail has highlighted how in some instances the wriggling turtles
were picked from tanks and triple wrapped in plastic bags where they
survived for an hour before suffocating
Five
minutes later the grisly job was done and the butcher, with dark blood
speckles on his apron, asked if we also wanted the head, too.
Animal
activists say a turtle remains aware and able to move its eyes for up
to an hour after decapitation unless their skulls are crushed with a
hammer.
An assistant explained: ‘First you chop the head off and then you lift the turtle up so as to let the blood drain.
‘When
you get home, put it in boiled water to sterilize it. After a few
minutes later, take a knife and cut the shell off the turtle, remove the
innards and rinse it.
‘Then chop into pieces and it’s done.’
The fresh water turtles are shipped from farms in Dalian, a Northeast China coastal city.
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