This Little Piggie Went to (Whole Foods) Market: Annual Meeting Protest

Stockholder PETA’s Mascot Says Whole Foods’ ‘Humane Meat’ Marketing Is a Lot of Baloney, Accuses Company of ‘Humane-Washing’

For Immediate Release:
March 8, 2016

Contact:
Catie Cryar 202-483-7382

Brandishing signs proclaiming that “there’s no such thing as humane meat” emblazoned with photos of pigs suffering at a Whole Foods supplier, PETA members—including PETA’s pig mascot—will greet Whole Foods shareholders as they arrive for the grocery chain’s annual meeting. Inside, a PETA staffer will ask, “When will Whole Foods stop misleading customers and stop marketing meat as ‘humane’?”

Where:           In front of the Fairmont hotel, 950 Mason St., San Francisco

When:             Wednesday, March 9, 7:15 a.m.

“The only way to eat humane is to eat vegan, which involves no slaughter, no trucking in all weather extremes, and none of the cruelty we have documented inside Whole Foods suppliers,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Pigs and other animals suffer for ‘humane meat’ without adequate space or veterinary care, and PETA wants Whole Foods to stop lying to customers.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”— exposed multiple discrepancies between Whole Foods’ “5-Step™” animal-care standards and the daily reality for pigs at Sweet Stem Farm, LLC, in Pennsylvania. Some pigs were given only 5 square feet of space on a concrete floor, and none of them had access to the farm’s lush green grass. They were left to suffer from fever, lameness, bleeding rectal prolapses, and other conditions for weeks without being examined or treated by a veterinarian, to the eyewitness’s knowledge. And despite the Whole Foods slogan “Our Meat: No Antibiotics, Ever,” many pigs who were given antibiotics were later sent to a slaughterhouse that supplies the grocery chain.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.