Woolworths meat joke sparks vegan backlash

A SIGN inside a Woolworths store has sparked a furious debate, with some calling it “disrespectful” and others suggesting people had no sense of humour.

A Woolworths supermarket in Sydney. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

A LIGHT-HEARTED sign above a Woolworths meat display has sparked online debate after one customer slammed it as “disrespectful”.

“What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef,” it reads.

Customer Lesley Millward shared a photo of the sign, taken at Woolworths in the Adelaide suburb of Glenelg, to the supermarket’s Facebook page on Sunday night. “What a disrespectful & insensitive bunch who work at Woolworths Glenelg,” she wrote.

The post was shared more than 1100 times and attracted more than 12,000 comments before being deleted, with some people agreeing with Ms Millward but many defending the supermarket and sharing their own animal jokes.

Woolies customer Lesley Millward called the sign “disrespectful and insensitive”.

“What do you call a deer with no eyes? No idea,” wrote Melanie Smith, while Mara Henry asked, “What do you call a cow with three legs? Lean beef.”

‎Simone Camilleri said she was “happy to see your staff have a great sense of humour”.

“Don’t worry about the ‘offended’ people,” she wrote. “I think a lot more people would be offended if you took it down! Can’t please everyone. This joke is a golden oldie and I support it.”

But John Smith argued that “people used to find jokes about black people funny too”. “Not in this day and age, time to move into the 21st century mate, this is distasteful at best,” he wrote.

Woolworths responded by saying it takes “all feedback on board”. “While we understand our team’s lighthearted touch with the display, we would never intentionally offend anyone,” the company wrote.

The post sparked fierce debate between vegans and meat eaters.

“We do take all feedback like this seriously and we’ll be sharing your comments regarding this with our team to take into consideration for future displays in store.”

Woolworths’ Facebook page has since been bombarded with hundreds of messages from customers asking the supermarket to stock more “cruelty-free” vegan products such as Tofurky and Sheese.

“Not only is veganism going to be the next biggest shift in social food awareness since people went from natural to processed foods, it is really good for the planet,” wrote Tanya Miller.

Sean Judd asked if Woolworths could “please ban all Vegans from your store”. “Their constant whining on your Facebook page offends me,” he wrote.

Deb Morris hit out at the “vegan sookie lalas with no sense of humour”. “Seems they’ve spammed your posts section with requests for some fake turkey and cheese,” she wrote. “I feel for your employees. Australians have become a bunch of whiners!”

‎Evie Mitchell added, “To all of you vegetables, the 24-hour window you were told to flood Woolies’ page with Tofurky posts is up. Your leader, The Great Zucchini, has instructed you all to stand down. Go back to chewing grass until you hear his call to arms next time!”

Speaking to Melbourne radio station 3AW on Wednesday, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) spokeswoman Laura Weyman-Jones said she was glad the sign started a conversation.

“It’s really sad that anecdotes about animal abuse are normal,” she said. “Unfortunately there is no ethical way to kill an animal for food. If you stepped into a slaughterhouse today, I very much doubt you would consider what’s happening to these animals to be ‘ethical’.”

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