DC-based Humane World Drops Endorsement of Deceptive Animal Welfare Labels Following PETA Push

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, D.C.-based Humane World for Animals (formerly Humane Society of the United States) has quietly fled the board. PETA has been pressuring the national animal welfare group to withdraw its backing of the labels because they deceive kind consumers into buying meat products from what they often have no idea are factory farms.

The group’s withdrawal follows a vigorous campaign by PETA, which included actor James Cromwell throwing his lifetime achievement award from Humane World for Animals into the trash and protests outside of the group’s D.C. headquarters and during its awards gala.

In a lawsuit filed this morning in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, PETA is taking aim at Global Animal Partnership (GAP)—the group responsible for the sham labels that are slapped on packages of meat from factory farms, including ones where it has been documented that animals have been kicked, slammed, suffered dislocated wings, and endured many other egregious cruelties; and ones from which cruelty-to-animals charges have emanated.

“Whole Foods and Big Ag are profiting from this labeling scheme by misleading kind shoppers and enticing them to buy factory-farmed meat,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone not to be fooled by feel-good labels that do nothing to help animals and to please remember that the only guaranteed humane food is vegan.”

PETA undercover investigations and whistleblower reports tied to GAP-certified farms include:

• 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.