NY-Based ASPCA Drops Endorsement of Deceptive Animal Welfare Labels Following PETA Push

For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2025

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

This week, 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, New York-based ASPCA has quietly fled the board. PETA had been pressuring the national animal welfare group to withdraw its 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.

Humane World for Animals (formerly Humane Society of the United States) and Compassion in World Farming have also pulled their support in the last few weeks, with the mass exodus following multiple vigorous actions by PETA, including manure dumps outside the groups’ headquarters, 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 ASPCA’s 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.”

Today, PETA filed a lawsuit against GAP, which claims that its “animal welfare” standards are enforced by “independent” auditors—even though 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:

PETA’s undercover investigations and whistleblower reports to expose extreme cruelty to animals:

• 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.

• 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.

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.