Shoppers Food Drops Chicken Supplier After Insider Reports Conscious Birds’ Heads Ripped Off
For Immediate Release:
September 3, 2025
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Supermarket chain Shoppers Food—which has 22 locations throughout Maryland and Virginia—has confirmed it has stopped selling chicken from Harrisonburg-based Farmer Focus. The move comes after PETA presented Shoppers Food’s parent company, United Foods, Inc., with a whistleblower report alleging egregious cruelty and decrepit, unsanitary conditions at the company, which slaps bogus “humane” labels on its products.
According to the industry insider, chickens from Farmer Focus-contracted farms had bruised, broken, and dislocated wings from being slammed in cage trays during transport to the company’s slaughterhouse. The whistleblower reported that many birds panicked and slowly drowned in the improperly maintained electrified bath intended to stun them. Reportedly, if they made it out alive, chickens struggled frantically as they approached the automated blade meant to cut their throats, causing slashes to their faces and bodies—and many were still alive and conscious when a machine pulled off their heads.
“Chickens don’t want to die any more than we do, and slapping a ‘humane’ label on a package of their body parts is a lie used to dupe consumers into paying more for the same old cruelties,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges consumers to see beyond deceptive labels and ensure that they’re not contributing to animals’ suffering by going vegan.”
Chickens are inquisitive, social animals who enjoy spending time with their flock mates and lying in the sun—but approximately 9 billion are killed for their flesh each year (that’s approximately 25 million every day). Multiple PETA investigations of “animal welfare certified” facilities like Farmer Focus have uncovered widespread cruelty, deprivation, and suffering—including workers kicking, beating, and throwing animals; cramming them by the thousands into packed, filthy sheds; and denying sick and injured animals treatment—before hauling them off to slaughterhouses where they’re violently killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan.
Shortly after PETA met with United Foods, an additional Farmer Focus whistleblower corroborated many of the first whistleblower’s claims, including that the slaughterhouse’s stunning bath was improperly maintained, resulting in botched killings.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits and free vegan starter kits for anyone thinking of making the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
