Subject line: Give Gressingham the boot!

To: James Bailey -Waitrose CEO, Simon Roberts -Sainsbury's CEO, Ken Murphy -Tesco CEO, David Potts -Morrisons CEO, Steve Murrells -The Co-operative Group CEO. Mohsin Issa -Asda majority shareholder
‍
It is incredibly disheartening and shocking that Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons, Co-op and Asda, the UK's 'Big Six' major supermarkets, continue to sell the commodified bodies of commercially-farmed ducks. As the largest stockists of Gressingham Duck, you are directly responsible for the abhorrent exploitation that ducks face on British farms.

Animal Justice Project, a leading animal rights pressure group, has carried out three undercover investigations into Gressingham Foods' farming practices since 2019. The exposés revealed that ducks had no access to open water, prohibiting their expression of natural behaviours – swimming and bathing – and causing psychological torment; ducks had their necks snapped and their bodies thrown into crowds of other distressed birds; artificial lighting was kept on for as long as two days; workers violently slammed ducks, alive, into metal shackles; and ducks were left hanging upside down on the slaughter line for seven times the legal limit.

Waitrose boasts "much more stringent welfare requirement than Red Tractor Standards", yet Gressingham Foods' farming practices do not even meet those basic regulations. Co-op states that "our farmers care for their animals by following the 5 Freedoms welfare code" including "freedom to express normal behaviour", yet continue to sell the bodies of these semi-aquatic birds who never even had the chance to bathe, swim or even feel sunshine on their backs.

The tragic reality of ducks suffering every day across the UK needs to end immediately. I call on you, as some of the most influential people in British retail, to commit to stop selling Gressingham Duck, and all duck products. Our feathered friends deserve a life free from exploitation.

Yours faithfully,