Target Under Fire: Whistleblower Reports Chickens Maimed, Decapitated Alive at ‘Humane’ Meat Supplier
For Immediate Release:
June 5, 2025
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Today, PETA sent an urgent letter to Target Chief Supply Chain & Logistics Officer Gretchen McCarthy, alerting the locally headquartered company to damning photos and video footage provided by a whistleblower who reports that Farmer Focus—also known as Shenandoah Valley Organic, a supplier to Target stores—mutilated, drowned, and pulled the heads off live chickens while the company markets its products as “humane” and “animal welfare certified.”
PETA is calling on Target to reconsider its ties to the company—and to reexamine its sales of all other meat, eggs, and dairy with deceptive “humane” labels—in light of the extreme, systemic abuse alleged by the industry insider, including that chickens’ wings were bruised, broken, and dislocated as a result of being “slammed” in cage trays during transport. The whistleblower also reported that when shackled, the birds struggled frantically to escape, causing many to be slashed on their faces and bodies by an automated blade; birds were plunged into a faulty, overfilled electrical “stunning bath,” where some slowly drowned; and many were still alert when their heads were pulled off.
Farmer Focus is “defrauding” consumers who pay higher prices for its products because of its bogus “traceable, sustainable, and humane” labels, according to the whistleblower, who noted that the company “consistently and knowingly” placed incorrect farm identification codes—part of its supposed traceability program—on its products.
“Well-intentioned Target shoppers are being hoodwinked into paying top dollar for baseless welfare claims from a company where chickens were reportedly slammed around, slashed, and subjected to violent, agonizing deaths,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Target to do right by its shoppers and stop propping up this deception, and reminds consumers that the only surefire way to spare animals from suffering in slaughterhouses is to go vegan.”
Multiple PETA investigations of “animal welfare certified” facilities have uncovered widespread cruelty, deprivation, and suffering—including workers kicking, beating, and throwing animals; cramming them by the thousands into packed, filthy sheds; denying sick and injured animals treatment; and hauling them through all weather extremes to slaughterhouses, where they’re violently killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan.
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 and free vegan starter kits for anyone thinking of making the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
