Animal Defenders to Raise a Ruckus Over Whole Foods’ Misleading Labels
For Immediate Release:
February 27, 2025
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
On Sunday, PETA supporters and other animal advocates holding signs declaring, “Meat is Murder,” will converge outside Whole Foods on Chimney Rock Road to call out the bogus certification scheme used to market the flesh of animals and dupe kind consumers into paying more for the same old cruelty. PETA points out that the Global Animal Partnership—the group behind deceptive “animal welfare certified” labels at Whole Foods Markets—allows animal-exploiting companies to place its sham stamp of approval on factory-farmed meat, eggs, and dairy, even though PETA has documented widespread, systemic cruelty at all 12 “certified” facilities it investigated.
“Whole Foods’ standards still allow for ‘certified’ facilities to mutilate piglets without pain relief, cram cows into filthy pens, force chickens to grow morbidly obese until they can barely walk, and kill these animals at a fraction of their natural life expectancy,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA encourages everyone to see the truth behind this misleading marketing ploy, and please go vegan.”
Where: Outside Whole Foods, 319 Chimney Rock Road, Bound Brook
When: Sunday, March 2, 1 p.m.
Why: PETA’s investigation into Plainville Farms—which at the time was Global Animal Partnership-certified—documented that workers kicked, beat, and threw turkeys and left sick and injured birds to suffer without treatment. As a result of the investigation, former workers at Plainville Farms were charged with six felonies and a total of 141 counts of cruelty to animals—the largest number in any factory-farmed animal case in U.S. history—and 10 workers have been convicted so far. PETA’s investigation into Sweet Stem Farm, which was also certified by Global Animal Partnership at the time, revealed that pigs were crammed into severely crowded sheds on concrete floors and had painful, bloody rectal prolapses as large as an orange that were left untreated.
PETA is calling on the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Humane Society of the United States—which currently sit on the board of directors of the Global Animal Partnership—to cut ties with the deceptive certification program as PETA and another group, Farm Forward, have done.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. PETA also offers a free vegan starter kit on its website for anyone ready to make the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
