‘Oh My God’: Horrified Shoppers React to Humane World for Animals-Approved Cruelty in New PETA Video
For Immediate Release:
March 14, 2025
Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382
“I don’t want to see any more.” That’s one grocery shopper’s reaction to shocking footage of slaughterhouse workers and farmers forcibly impregnating cows and stealing their newborn babies, and shoving terrified, screaming pigs into gas chambers—all cruelties that are rubberstamped by Washington, D.C.-based Humane World for Animals (formerly the Humane Society of the United States). A new TV spot from PETA airing now on TV stations in D.C. spares viewers from the graphic imagery but shows people wincing, turning away, and refusing to look as they watch the footage. The spot takes aim at Humane World for Animals, a senior leader of which sits on the board of a group that promotes a bogus “animal welfare certified” scheme used to market the flesh of animals and dupe kind consumers into paying more for the same old cruelty. The spot ends with a challenge to viewers to visit PETA’s website and see for themselves what made these shoppers cringe in horror.
“I don’t think that they should be putting an animal welfare certified label when they’re treating animals horribly,” says one shopper. “It might be the best to just switch to a plant-based diet,” acknowledges another.
The sham certification comes courtesy of the Global Animal Partnership, a meat, egg, and dairy humane-washing scheme that props up factory farms and allows animal-exploiting companies to slap the deceptive labels on their products in Whole Foods stores—even though PETA investigators have documented widespread and systemic cruelty and suffering at all 12 certified facilities they visited.
Grocery shoppers react to graphic footage of animal abuse at Global Animal Partnership-certified farms. Credit: PETA
“No one with an ounce of empathy would keep eating meat, eggs, and dairy if they saw what went on inside slaughterhouses, yet Humane World for Animals endorses nonsense ‘animal welfare’ labels that simply whitewash the same old cruelty,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA invites people to see the horrors for themselves at peta.org/GAP, and we remind everyone that the only truly humane meal is a vegan one.”
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’s TV spot is running on ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, and FOX through March 19. It’s also airing in New York City near the headquarters of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)—a senior leader of which also sits on the Global Animal Partnership’s board—and in Austin, Texas, the home of Whole Foods, which sells “animal welfare certified” meat.
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’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
