Leeds shopper finds pro-vegan sticker on ready meal that contained meat

Leah Mallet, a customer at a Morrisons supermarket in Leeds, says she felt “emotionally blackmailed” after finding an anti-meat sticker on a packet of spaghetti bolognese. She slammed the sticker, calling it an “aggressive guerilla tactic”, and said she “felt really horrible. Someone had put it there to make them feel like that”.

She also said that she’s “seen and understands people’s opinions on eating meat. But doing something aggressive like that is almost like [emotional] blackmailing. It made me feel quite sick. I didn’t really feel like I wanted to eat that meal after that. I didn’t know what it was at first when I opened it, it didn’t look part of the ready meal at all”.

The sticker was placed there by Marc Gurney, who runs a vegan campaign in Brighton, says he wants people to think about what they’re eating: “I think it’s important that people understand that it’s not right for an animal to be killed when there are so many alternatives to animal products”.

He commented on the backlash he’s received due to the emotional distress these stickers have caused, “If this girl was horrified and scared then perhaps she needs to think twice about what she puts on her plate. She needs to consider what the cow was going through while it was experiencing a brutal torture”.

When Gurney was asked to comment of the fact that his actions were breaking the law, he said “the stickers are usually placed on the side of the package. You stick at your own risk. The point is we are being bombarded with images of dead animal flesh and what we are doing is raising consciousness. I’m not sure about the legal side but the worst that may happen is they throw you out of the supermarket”.

He was also asked whether he was concerned about the shocking nature the stickers have proved to have. “They are peaceful and none graphic,” he says. “They are sending out a provocative message for people to make the connection. We have to be a voice for these animals for the obvious reason. Times are changing and there are a hell of a lot of vegan products that are a replacement for animal products”.