By International Council for Animal Welfare
Supermarket Morrisons has announced its ambition to phase out eyestalk-ablation and suffocation in ice-slurry for 100 % of its prawn sales by 2027. The move follows negotiations with the International Council for Animal Welfare (ICAW) and is part of a general update of Morrisons species-specific animal welfare policies.
“It’s encouraging to see Morrisons join the majority of UK supermarkets to take a stand on prawn welfare. Customers don’t want to buy products for which animals’ eyes have been cut off.” comments Justine Audemard, Head of Negotiations at ICAW. She adds: “We are left wondering what prevents Iceland, Asda, Lidl and Aldi from publishing a similar policy.”
Last week, 70 people protested in front of an Iceland store in Greenwich, demanding the company adopt the higher standards in what was called the world’s biggest protest for shrimp. “If you were to do that to your pet goldfish, you’d get locked up. That is awful.” commented a member of the public after seeing footage of prawns having their eyestalks removed while fully conscious.
Prawn protest (Credit: Georgina Ellen).
In reaction to the protest, Iceland Chairman Richard Walker claimed on LinkedIn that Iceland will be “one of the first UK retailers to roll out Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certified prawns”. He received pushback from Luke Evans, Head of Buying at Sainsbury’s and dozens of other commenters who pointed out that Walker’s statement falls short of a time-bound commitment to phase out the controversial practices for 100% of the prawns sold.
UK retailers Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Ocado, Waitrose and most recently the Co-op have already publicly committed to phase out both eyestalk ablation and introduce electrical stunning.
Background
Prawns are the UK’s most consumed farmed animal — and have been acknowledged as sentient following a 2021 report by the London School of Economics.
Discounters such as Iceland, Aldi, and Lidl mandate effective pre-slaughter stunning for animals. Yet footage obtained by the International Council for Animal Welfare suggests that many animals are not being stunned before slaughter, potentially breaching supermarket policies.
“Research shows that prawns feel pain. Sadly, the UK discounters still fail to mandate effective slaughter methods for them.” states Jonas Becker, Head of Invertebrate Policy at the International Council for Animal Welfare.
