Farmer Focus Faces FTC Complaint Over Consumer Deception, Fraudulent Animal Welfare Claims

For Immediate Release:
May 16, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Harrisonburg, Va. –

PETA has submitted a formal complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alerting the agency to a whistleblower’s report that Harrisonburg-based chicken company Farmer Focus—which touts its products as “animal welfare certified” and “traceable”—subjects chickens to horrific bruises, broken and disjointed bones, and decapitations while they are still alive and knowingly mislabels its products. PETA’s complaint urges the FTC to investigate the company and hold it accountable for any and all violations of consumer-protection law. Photos and video footage from the whistleblower are here and here.

Farmer Focus, also known as Shenandoah Valley Organic, supplies chicken flesh to Kroger, Publix, Safeway, Harris Teeter, Farm Fresh, The Fresh Market, and ButcherBox. A veteran chicken industry insider reported that the company is “defrauding” consumers who pay higher prices for its products because of its sham “traceable, sustainable, and humane” labels—all while chickens endured prolonged and agonizing deaths at the facility.

The whistleblower’s allegations include:

Farmer Focus “consistently and knowingly” places incorrect farm identification codes—part of its supposed traceability program—on its products and mislabels product types and brands. The whistleblower stated that company executives, including the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operating Officer, are aware of persistent mislabeling problems and other consumer complaints, but the issues persist.
As they approached an automated blade that is supposed to cut their throats, conscious birds struggled frantically, frequently causing them to be slashed on their faces and bodies. Employees often botched the manual cutting of these birds’ throats, and “in many cases,” birds were still alive and aware when their heads were pulled off.
Chickens’ wings were bruised, broken, and dislocated—as the whistleblower’s photographs and videos indicate—as a result of the birds being “slammed” and caught in cage trays during transport.
The electrical “stunning bath” was overfilled—causing some birds to drown.

*The whistleblower’s photos showed birds with broken and bruised wings and legs.*

“A brave whistleblower came forward to PETA to report that Farmer Focus is charging customers extra for falsely labeled ‘humane’ meat while subjecting chickens to prolonged and agonizing deaths,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling on the FTC to intervene and reminding kind consumers that the only truly humane option is to go vegan.”

Following PETA’s previous formal complaints over “humane-washing”—companies’ attempts to dupe caring consumers into believing that they’re buying compassionately produced goods—Oakridge Dairy, Greater Goods, and Quince all removed misleading and false claims from their advertising language.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free vegan starter kits for those looking to make the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.