Leclerc just got bad publicity.
The E.Leclerc center in Blaye near Bordeaux (Gironde) is under fire from critics after promoting a new product that has arrived in its fish counter, reports the Huffington Post.
On social networks, the store announced Thursday, September 15 to sell blue shark.
An endangered species.
This humorous advertisement was spotted the same day by journalist Hugo Clément, known for his positions in favor of animals.
He recalled in a tweet that the blue shark is "a species whose numbers are collapsing" and that it is "classified as critically endangered in the Mediterranean".
According to TF1, Sea Shepherd has called for a boycott of the brand.
On Facebook, the NGO asked Hervé Berville, Secretary of State for the Sea, to ban "the sale of endangered species".
"Our store did not respect the brand's tide policy"
This shark is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List but is not a protected species.
In response to the controversy, the Leclerc supermarket in Blaye deleted its advertising and had to apologize on social networks: "By recently marketing a blue-skinned shark, our store did not respect the brand's tide policy. E.Leclerc.
Indeed, since 2017 E.Leclerc has had a list of species prohibited from marketing and the blue shark is one of them.
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A public apology
In this message published on Facebook, the store claims to have understood the "dissatisfaction" of Internet users.
"We apologize and apologize for hurting your feelings.
We undertake never to reproduce this error and to strictly respect the Tide Policy of the E.Leclerc Centers”, he writes.
The Leclerc group had already created controversy in 2020 by selling a thresher shark in one of its stores in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne).
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