Whole Foods Drops Turkey Supplier Following PETA Exposé

For Immediate Release:
August 19, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After PETA revealed that workers kicked, stomped on, and beat turkeys with a heavy rod at farms supplying Plainville Farms, Whole Foods has suspended all purchasing from the company and pulled its products from store shelves, calling PETA’s footage “incredibly upsetting and unacceptable.”

PETA’s investigator worked on crews that load turkeys onto slaughterhouse-bound trucks at “humane”-certified farms raising birds for Plainville Farms. Workers were caught on camera pretending to masturbate with a dying female bird, throwing birds like basketballs, and trying to break turkeys’ necks and tossing them aside to convulse and die in intense pain. Instead of doing anything to stop this abuse, one supervisor himself kicked turkeys and repeatedly encouraged workers to abuse them.

“If Whole Foods’ shoppers could see the abuse that turkeys endure for so-called ‘humane’ meat, they’d lose their lunch,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges consumers to remember these gentle birds, ignore the misleading marketing, and opt for the many vegan options on Whole Foods’ shelves.”

Plainville Farms—which boasts that the turkeys it exploits are “free from harm” and experience “comfortable” and “stress-free” transportation—is “certified” by Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.), which was founded by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey and whose director’s salary, as of last year, is paid by Whole Foods. PETA is demanding that G.A.P. drastically change its certification program by prohibiting labeling designed to deceive customers.

PETA has also called on Plainville Farms to conduct a full audit of its crews and terminate all abusive workers; urged Harris Teeter, Wegmans, and Publix, which Plainville also supplies, to investigate their suppliers and highlight their vegan options; and submitted evidence to the Pennsylvania State Police, which is investigating.

Broadcast-quality video footage is available here. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.