ASPCA, Humane World End Endorsement of Deceptive Animal Welfare Labels

For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2025

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After more than a decade of sitting on the board of directors of a group that slaps deceptive “animal welfare certified” labels on meat sold at Whole Foods, national animal welfare groups the ASPCA, Humane World for Animals (formerly Humane Society of the United States), and Compassion in World Farming have quietly fled the board. PETA had been pressuring the groups to withdraw their support of Global Animal Partnership (GAP) because these labels deceive kind consumers into buying meat products from what they often have no idea are factory farms, including those where PETA has video evidence of animals being kicked, slammed, and even sexually abused.

The mass exodus followed multiple vigorous actions by PETA, including manure dumps outside the groups’ headquarters, actor James Cromwell throwing his lifetime achievement award from Humane World for Animals into the trash, billboards condemning their endorsement of cruelty to animals, and public appeals to their members.

“For more than 10 years, Big Ag used these groups as a smokescreen for its humane-washing scheme that dupes consumers into paying more for severe cruelties to animals,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “With the animal welfare groups’ departure, it’s obvious that GAP is just Big Ag, the animals be damned, and PETA reminds everyone that the only guaranteed humane food is vegan.”

PETA raised a real stink in New York City when a dump truck dropped a pile of poop in front of the ASPCA’s headquarters. Credit: PETA

Today, PETA filed a lawsuit against GAP, which claims that its “animal welfare” standards are enforced by “independent” auditors. But PETA’s lawsuit outlines numerous ties between GAP, Whole Foods, and its auditors, including that the CEO of the company that manages GAP and the owner of the company that performs its “animal welfare audits” are the same.PETA also points out that it has taken PETA’s undercover investigations and whistleblower reports, and not GAP auditors, to expose extreme cruelty to animals:

• At Sweet Stem Farm, a PETA investigator documented pigs who were crammed into severely crowded sheds on concrete floors and had painful, bloody rectal prolapses as large as an orange that were left untreated. Sweet Stem Farm was GAP-certified at the time.

• At Farmer Focus, whistleblowers reported that chickens had bruised, broken, and dislocated wings from being slammed into cages for transport to the company’s slaughterhouse. Farmer Focus was and is still GAP-certified.

• At Plainville Farms, a PETA investigator documented workers kicking, beating, and violently throwing turkeys about, and leaving sick and injured birds to suffer without veterinary care. Plainville was GAP-certified at the time.

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 Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram