Tescos kill Turtles and Tortoises

[Martin Burnard]

This is taken from

Care For The Wild International

On Friday 26th January, Tesco announced the opening of its first own-brand supermarket in China, to compete with other international chains already operating there. It’s mission – to appeal more to the Chinese people and offer local delicacies that will be swept off the shelves.
But this spells absolute misery for the many hundreds of turtles and tortoises that are being sold live on the Tesco counters. Bagged up and left for customers to choose exactly which body parts they would like, before being cut up right there and then, these animals are facing horrendous distress and pain every day.
Tescos maintain that they follow high animal welfare standards, but by selling and slaughtering these poor animals in their stores, this is a completely false claim. Care for the Wild International has been campaigning on this issue since the beginning of 2006


More details are on the link

Not my call where you shop and I have no intention of preaching.... just drawing your attention to the issue.

[B]

I am surprised in Tescos to be honest.. thank you for drawing our attention to this, certainly makes me think twice about where I shop..

B x

[Sipadan]

What on earth is the difference between this and factory farmed chicken. At least it's upfront and people can actually see what's involved in food production.

[broady]

Whilst I love Turtles and they are undoubtedly more 'cuddly' than say Chickens - this really should only be troubling if the stocks aren't renewable / carefully monitored on the same basis as the 'regional' meats we consume in the UK.

Having said that it does seem that Far Eastern countries don't give too much of a stuff about how many of anything they kill to eat - then again some of our own waters are being fished to death.

G

[Martin Burnard]

When was the last time you heard the Turtle population was looking healthy?

I have no problem with what people eat, so long as the relevant population isn't under threat.

I enjoy my meat and fish, BUT I do try to be repsonsible with it.

So Sipadan there is my point no more no less, nothing clever, nothing deep rooted, just a heads up for peoples awareness.

Shop at Tesco's if you wish. Awareness doesn't have to be issue or a concern. it is after all only awareness.

Now back to diving! (oooo did I mention it's 10 minutes from my front door to my local coastal dive site?)

[tom]

UK supermarkets sell live lobsters, crabs and shellfish on ice. What is the difference?


IIRC Martin the turtles and frogs sold by Tesco are farmed rather than caught from the wild. I think there probably are issues to do with the difficulty of humane slaughter though.

PS I'm a vegetarian so I obviously don't like this, but I don't see it as much different from UK practices.

[Howard Payne]

Bloody Tescos - you can't get a Turtle Byriani over here - that's blatant discrimination that is

[broady]

Rereading my reply I think it is a little ambiguous. I am not suggesting that Turtles are monitored in the same way as say Chickens et al. More that 'if' they are, then I feel it hard to condemn eating Turtles - or any other 'cuddly' animal. I was trying to give a view balanced against our more regular animal food products.

I rather suspect that Turtles are among those animals in declining numbers and as such I would be substantially troubled if Tescos were turning a blind eye just to satisfy local market demands.

[Edit] Or at least assisting in increasing Turtle numbers in the wild ...etc...[Edit]

[JonP]

Suspect then that it is more about humane treatment. Chickens are, in theory at least, kept and slaughtered humanely and in a manner which minimises distress.

[Stephen]

"What on earth is the difference between this and factory farmed chicken. At least it's upfront and people can actually see what's involved in food production."

There is every difference between a farmed product and endangered and vulnerable wild populations that are slow to reproduce and are being eradicated. Land chelonians in Asia are particularly vulnerable to this and if its true its a disgrace.