Hundreds Out on the Streets for Tesco Demos
The plight of the Tesco Turtles Reaches Millions

	Viva! out in force for turtles in Bristol

Over 160 peaceful demos took place outside Tesco stores on Saturday 14 July 2007, with around a thousand people calling for them to stop selling live turtles in their Chinese stores. Thank you to everyone who took part! Despite the completely unrelated security scares (which are reportedly financially motivated) the public were overwhelmingly supportive, and many pledged to lend the campaign their support.

The response of the street was astounding. Kelly held a demo in central London, she told us "The demo went really well on sat. I had over 20 people turn up and I sent some off to do another two stores, so we covered 3 stores in central London. We stayed until we had handed out all the leaflets, which only took 2.5 hours. People were very responsive and we gave out all the postcards and spoke to a few people. There was also a new girl who hadn't done any activism before and she was keen to get involved so I let her know about everything happening in London and the date of the next London Animal Rights meeting. So it was a very positive day." Judi from North Wales told us, "Hope you had a fantastic response all over Britain to your campaign, as we did at our local Tesco.". Ursula in Solihull said, "We actually did two demos; one at Monkspath and then another at the slightly smaller Tesco store in Hall Green. Pretty well everybody was very supportive."

Just some of the press coverage the turtles got thanks to you.

Viva! has been working with other animal welfare groups and, since we became involved, Tesco have bowed to this combined pressure by stopping selling all but one type of turtle: the Chinese soft-shell. However, they are still killed to order by chopping off their heads - and because it can take up to an hour for them to die Tesco now ask for them to be hit with a hammer until they are dead. This is an imprecise slaughter method which can still result in great suffering. Others are sold live to customers, who take them home to butcher any way they choose.

The Day of Action and resulting press coverage - which has seen the plight of the Tesco turtles featured in the Evening Standard, The Daily Mail, The Times and most national, and many local, newspapers - has sent a very loud message to Tesco: animal abuse is animal abuse no matter where it happens.

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