Shopper outraged at ‘baby’ octopus on sale for 36p in a Salford Morrisons

A shopper has shared his hurt and disgust after coming across a dead ‘baby’ octopus on sale for just 36p in the reduced aisle. 

Vegan charity worker Justin Webb was in his local Morrisons in Eccles last week when he stumbled across what he believed to be four dead baby octopuses in the reduced to clear section of the store twenty minutes before closing time.

Heartbroken by the sorry sight, Justin took a photo and shared it onto Twitter, writing: “36 pence for a dead baby octopus, one of the most amazing creatures to ever swim the seas. I swear we do not deserve this world.”

He added: “The poor thing was priced at £1.41 to start with, which is offensive in the extreme for a living wild creature, to then see it marked down adds insult to injury. It shows the human disregard for life.”

He followed up his tweet by pointing out that in twenty minutes time, the octopuses would be ‘thrown in the bin like trash.’

Justin said: “We’ve moved her from her home to the rubbish bin. It’s unforgivable. These are beautiful, sentient creatures and you wouldn’t do that to dogs or cats.”

The photo was quick to go viral, with many other shoppers expressing their shock and disgust. One social media user wrote: “Awful, they are intelligent creatures. My daughter is a marine scientist and has worked with octopi, they recognise faces, interact and are very clever. They should not be eaten.”

Jim Barton / Geograph

Another noted:“Who’s going to even know how to cook it, apart from chefs? Maybe we should ensure that we’ve got fresh vegetables and fruits instead of octopuses. This is so sad.”

Morrisons has since responded to the viral photo by pointing out that the octopus wasn’t a baby and was in fact an adult, explaining that it was the most ‘commonly caught octopus species in Cornwall, Eledone cirrhosa, which is much smaller than the common octopus Octopus vulgaris.’

The supermarket added: “While we try to manage our stock to customer demands, it is not always possible.

“Occasionally and as a last resort – to ensure that food that is fit for consumption is not wasted – we do provide an extremely limited number of price reductions.”