Care for the Wild International - Press release

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SCIENTISTS AND VETERINARIANS OPPOSE TESCO

TURTLE SALES

 

Ahead of tomorrow's Tesco AGM, Care for the Wild International

together with 27 leading veterinary, scientific and chelonian

authorities and professional bodies wrote to Tesco CEO Sir Terry

Leahy urging him to stop selling turtles and bullfrogs in China on

conservation and animal welfare grounds.

 

Care for the Wild International (CWI) Chief Executive Dr Barbara Maas

says, "China's hunger for turtle meat has sparked an acute extinction

crisis. By selling freshwater turtles for food in its Chinese outlets

Tesco is facilitating the demise of these species."

 

Tesco either butchers frogs and turtles in store or sells them alive

for customers to slaughter at home. CWI's opposition focuses on

animal welfare concerns related to farming, transport, display and

slaughter, and the conservation impact of turtle consumption as a

whole.

 

"After assessing information provided by CWI last June," says Dr

Maas, "Tesco removed hardshell turtles from sale because it is not

possible to access the animal's head for decapitation without

breaking the shell. Tesco also added crushing the skull to

decapitation as a slaughter method to reduce time to death."

 

"Decapitation has been deemed unacceptable as a sole method of

euthanasia for chelonians and is only acceptable when reptiles are

rendered unconscious by other methods," says Dr. Wilbur Amand,

Executive Director of The Association of Reptilian and Amphibian

Veterinarians and Executive Director of The American Academy of

Veterinary Nutrition. "Reptiles are capable of surviving prolonged

periods of anoxia (absence of oxygen from the brain) for an HOUR (or

more) after decapitation," explains Tortoise Aid Director, Annie

Lancaster. Turtles killed this way will experience awareness and

severe pain. According to Dr. Richard Gibson, Head Curator of

Herpetology at the Zoological Society of London, decapitation "is

only marginally better than the live disembowelment and butchery

going on in the live food markets."

 

CWI investigators who visited 32 Chinese Tesco stores in April and

May discovered that staff do not adhere to Tesco's new slaughter

policies. In 12 stores where CWI witnessed slaughter firsthand, staff

continued to kill turtles by decapitation alone or by evisceration.

CWI also found large numbers of disembowelled turtles with intact

heads for sale.

 

In a Tesco store in China's Guangdong Province, CWI observed how

staff caught a turtle and started to cut its head. "The turtle pulled

back into the shell," says Dr Maas, "so staff cut the shell along the

 

edge. The turtle broke loose and was caught again after about a

minute. Staff then sliced the still living turtle in half, separating

the upper and lower part of its shell. In another scene, Tesco staff

cut the turtle's abdomen from tail to neck with a pair of scissors.

The turtle extended its long neck and its extremities struggled.

Tesco staff then added a traverse incision and pulled out the

entrails." CWI also saw Tesco staff skinning bullfrogs alive. "This

unacceptable and can not be considered humane under any

circumstances."

 

Bound up tightly in plastic netting, live turtles are mostly

displayed on ice, which is inappropriate and causes pain. CWI says

that although Tesco acknowledged this fact a year ago, the practice

continues.

 

Three quarters of Asian tortoises and freshwater turtles are

threatened with extinction as a result of human consumption. China

alone consumes some 20 million turtles a year. "International trade

in live turtles to supply the Chinese markets has also decimated wild

populations in many other countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, New

Guinea, Indonesia, India, and even the USA," says Kevin Buley from

The European Association of Zoos' & Aquaria's (EAZA) Shellshock

Turtle & Tortoise Conservation Campaign.

 

Although Tesco claims all its turtles are farmed, staff told CWI that

some turtles on sale were wild caught. Research by Dr. Shi Haitao

from the Chinese Academy of Sciences confirmed that farming threatens

wild populations. "In the long term turtle farms serve no function

beyond generating profit for a few entrepreneurs. The existence of an

enormous, largely unregulated, turtle-farming industry creates

additional and serious challenges for turtle conservation. In

addition "wild-caught turtles fetch significantly higher prices than

farm-raised turtles, and no amount of captive breeding will decrease

the desire for wild turtles. It is unlikely that the black market

turtle farms could ever be controlled."

 

Prof. Darrell Senneke, a leading authority on tortoises and turtles

and Director of the World Chelonian Trust told CWI, "When an adult

turtle is removed from the wild, it is not just that turtle that is

being removed, but also the reproductive potential of that animal

over a breeding life that may exceed 50 years. As a result, removal

of even a few adults from a population can result in the decline and

eventual loss of the entire population."

 

"Turtle farms themselves still have a huge demand for wild caught

specimens to ensure that the fecundity of the animals in the farms

remains high," says Dr. Buley. "Farms that don't regularly `top-up'

their breeding stock with fresh wild caught animals, very quickly

notice a drop-off in egg and hatchling production. The growth of

turtle farms, the regional and international trade and now, the

availability of these non-domesticated animals in large supermarket

franchises, is having a catastrophic effect on the remaining fragile

wild populations of many species.The cruellest aspect of turtle

sales by companies such as Tesco, says reptile expert Prof. Harvey

Lillywhite, "is the extinction of populations and species worldwide".

 

Tesco's Corporate Responsibility Policy states the company

is "committed to conducting business in an ethical and socially

responsible manner" and uses "up-to-date knowledge of research,

ethics, scientific facts and legislation to ensure this

happens". "Twelve months ago CWI provided Tesco with all the science

and expert opinions needed to reach a decision" says Dr Maas. "But

Tesco refuses to accept facts. Undeterred by science and its own

policies, Tesco insists on maintaining an untenable position. This is

irresponsible and unreasonable, and no amount of denial, corporate

spin and excuses will change that."

 

 

 

Please help by signing our online petition at:

 

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/518761759