Sainsbury‘s has incited a public backlash with 46,000 signing a petition to boycott, after it exterminated three foxes outside its store in Dartford.
A customer witnessed the hired exterminators shooting a fox outside Sainsbury‘s Crayford superstore, sparking the petition to boycott the retailer which has been shared 23,000 times on Twitter.
Sainsbury‘s stated that it doesn‘t kill mother foxes and that on this occasion it had to hire exterminators to kill three male foxes following numerous “incidents”.
“An independent expert has confirmed our contractor correctly followed industry guidelines in the interest of the safety of our customers and colleagues,” the retailer said in a statement.
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“We follow strict pest control guidelines to try to prevent issues. For example, to avoid attracting foxes we donate the majority of surplus food to charity partners the same day so it isn‘t lying around. We also keep floors and surfaces clean to avoid attracting foxes and any other pests.
“We continue to trial different detterents with our experts and view trapping foxes as a last resort.
“In the extremely rare event there are issues with foxes in the future, we can confirm that we would only use humane deterrents.”
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