Animals

Customers boycott Tesco store after it banned Pumpkin the cat


Thank you, come again (Picture: Jo Harding /SWNS.COM)

Pet-loving shoppers are boycotting a Tesco Express store after bosses banned a friendly cat who had become a regular visitor at the Norwich store.

Little Pumpkin frequents the store for naps and social time, sleeping on the tills and rolling over for pats from customers.

Pumpkin lives with grandmother and cat-lover Jo Harding, her husband Lee, daughter Abbie and granddaughter Amelia, along with seven other cats and a dog.

He is a rescue cat whose home is just a few doors down from the Tesco, but despite the fact he’s been a huge hit with the customers, store chiefs have now banned the popular ginger Tom from coming in, saying it’s ‘not Tesco policy.’

Store leader, Andrew Tabiner, 49, said the cat was ‘banned’ with some members of staff calling him a ‘hindrance and a pain’.

The cruel banning even made the local papers, where Tabiner said ‘The bottom line is it should not be in the store, as it is not Tesco policy, and we are doing everything we can to discourage it from coming in. It is absolutely not a shop pet.’

His owner said he’s like a security guard (Picture: Jo Harding /SWNS.COM)

He said that Pumpkin was probably drawn in by the warmth of the store, and hinted that passers-by may have been feeding the pet outside the supermarket.

Those who heard of the ban have not reacted how Tesco perhaps imagined, and instead have been boycotting the store, located in Drayton.

One angry person wrote in a local Facebook group: ‘Not sure how you can ‘ban’ a cat from anywhere, particularly a cat who is clearly very streetwise since he is a rescue who lived on the streets for years?! Everyone loves him around here and with good reason.’

Another said: ‘Poor pumpkin. He is such a character. I think his supporters should boycott Tesco.’

He has manners, and can sit at the table like a good boy (Picture: Jo Harding/SWNS.COM)

His owner Jo Harding, 49, said Pumpkin ‘isn’t causing any harm’ and regularly pops into his favourite shops in the town including an estate agents and the local pub.

Jo said: ‘He’s no bother I think he just wants a bit of attention off people!

‘He was a street cat before we had him so he is very street wise and Tesco is where he spends most of his time. He’s been going in there for 18 months now and I know the staff all love him so I’m not sure why he’s being stopped after so long.

‘He mainly lies by the door- he’s like a security guard!’

An unexpected item in the bagging area (Picture: Jo Harding /SWNS.COM)

Pumpkin and Jo have been inundated with support from the local community, with the cat’s personal Facebook receiving 300 friend requests in the two days since the ban.

‘He’s got more friends than me!’ said Jo.

‘He’s got followers from the USA, Canada and Norway- I have no idea how it’s reached that far! People were saying they were boycotting Tesco, it’s just gone a bit mental.’

Jo says that the only way she can keep six-year-old Pumpkin out of the Tesco is by keeping him in, which she says is ‘unfair on him’.

The family adopted Pumpkin from a local charity two years ago and has been with them ever since.

A Tesco spokesperson said: ‘Although we love the little ginger cat who visits Acres Way Express a food store isn’t the best place for a cat to be, so our colleagues gently encourage him to go out when he tries to come in.’

Perhaps they’ll change their minds when sales of cat food from local animal lovers plummet.

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