Tesco boycott profile
Current boycott calls
Live turtle sales boycott
Care for the Wild (CWI) are calling for a boycott of Tesco over the sale of live turtles in the company's Chinese stores.
Evidence from a CWI investigations in Tesco's China stores during 2010 has revealed that:
Live turtles are displayed adjacent to tanks of ice. The cooling of the turtles’ environment in this way is likely to be detrimental to their welfare.
Contrary to Tesco’s stated policy, Chinese soft shelled turtles are not the only species being offered for sale in Chinese stores.
Turtles are purchased live by the customer for slaughter at home, or slaughtered in-store. Store staff indicated that different methods of slaughter could be used depending on the customer’s requirements.This also runs contrary to Tesco’s stated policy. Tesco claims it operates a standardized in-store slaughter policy involving decapitation followed by immediate crushing of the skull.
CWI has also accumulated evidence to show that the farming of turtles in China is not sustainable and is damaging to wild populations. The sale of live turtles to the public also presents a significant public health risk.
When challenged at Tesco’s shareholders AGM in 2008, Sir Terence Leahy claimed that any future sale of live turtles would be based on “sound science”.
Past boycotts
Israel produce boycott
Tesco was listed under the boycott campaigns/consumer boycotts section of the Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) Campaign website, www.bigcampaign.org. It stated that Tesco sold a number of Israeli products at their UK stores. In correspondence with PSC/BIG supporters they said they were phasing out their line of Israeli peppers due to consumer pressure. Tesco say that 'freedom of choice' is one of their top priorities and consumers can choose not to buy Israeli products. It also stated that Tesco sell Israeli/settlement produce supplied to them by another company. The campaign was calling on people to write to Tesco and ask them not to sell Israeli goods.
Click here for more information on boycotts of Israel.
Privacy boycott
The Boycott Tesco website www.boycotttesco.com published by CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) previously called for a boycott of Tesco. The website stated that Tesco had been using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) spychips in violation of an international call by privacy experts worldwide for a moratorium on item-level RFID tagging. Item level tagging involves placing an RFID tag on a product a consumer buys (as opposed to a tag on the outside of a crate or box of products in a warehouse). According to the website Tesco had announced plans to expand the trial from two to ten stores setting a precedent for other stores. The website called for a boycott of Tesco for the use of RFID technology. The website was viewed in November 2010 and was no longer active.