Chaos erupted in a Southampton Sainsbury’s in Portswood on Saturday as frustrated shoppers confronted animal rights activists with their shopping trolleys during an hour-long protest in the meat aisle.
The dramatic scenes, captured on video and widely shared online, showed seven protesters from campaign group Animal Rising staging a sit-in protest while increasingly agitated customers demanded passage through the blocked aisle.
“I’ll just knock you out the way with my trolley then,” one woman can be heard saying in the footage, after protesters refused to let her pass. Another shopper repeatedly insisted he had “asked nicely” before attempting to navigate his trolley through the human blockade.
The Southampton demonstration was part of a coordinated nationwide protest targeting major supermarkets, including M&S stores in Birmingham, Manchester, and Nottingham. The activists were protesting against the RSPCA Assured farm scheme, which certifies meat products sold in major supermarket chains.
Rose Patterson, lead investigator for Animal Rising, claimed their investigations revealed that “cruelty is endemic within the Assured scheme” and called for the RSPCA to “drop the Assured label for good.” The group spent over an hour sitting on the supermarket floor, brandishing signs that they say exposed discrepancies between the scheme’s advertising and reality.
But their methods drew sharp criticism from shoppers and online observers. The confrontation escalated when several customers, having failed to negotiate passage verbally, resorted to pushing their trolleys past the protesters. One particularly heated exchange saw a male customer tell activists: “I don’t care, you don’t control my passage anywhere.”
Hampshire Constabulary confirmed they attended the scene but stated no further police action was required. The RSPCA defended their certification programme, citing an independent review of over 200 farms that found the scheme “operating effectively” to ensure animal welfare standards.
“While 94 per cent of people choose to eat meat, RSPCA Assured is the right thing to do for animals being farmed right now,” an RSPCA spokesperson said, acknowledging their differing approach from the protesters.
The incident highlights growing tensions between animal rights activists and consumers, as campaign groups increasingly target supermarkets in their efforts to challenge industrial farming practices. Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s customers in Southampton simply wanted to finish their weekly shop.
