Protest at The Plaza! ASPCA Event to Face Uproar Over Meat Industry Endorsement

For Immediate Release:
October 9, 2024

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Tomorrow, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ (ASPCA) Annual Humane Awards Luncheon at The Plaza hotel will be thrown into turmoil as dozens of PETA supporters converge outside the event holding blown-up images of pigs and turkeys with the words “Stop Betraying Us!” The protesters will appeal to ASPCA leaders to resign from the board of directors of the Global Animal Partnership, a humane-washing program that enables factory farmers to slap deceptive “animal welfare certified” labels on their products—even though PETA investigators have documented widespread, severe, and systemic cruelty and suffering at all 12 certified farms they visited, all of which can be seen in videos like this one.

In a one-two punch, PETA will also run a full-page color ad in Sunday’s editions of The Washington Post and The New York Times informing readers about this shady alliance and proclaiming, “It Has to Stop!”

“An animal welfare group approving factory farms is like an oncologist endorsing a tobacco company,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA calls on the ASPCA to stop duping kind consumers about whom their food comes from and urges everyone to please go vegan—because the only truly humane meal is one that no animal had to suffer and die for.”

Where: The Plaza, 768 Fifth Ave., New York

When: Thursday, October 10, 11:30 a.m.

Why: At Global Animal Partnership–certified Plainville Farms, a PETA investigator documented that workers kicked and stomped on turkeys, broke their necks, hit them with an iron bar, and simulated sex acts with them, among other atrocities. The investigation resulted in former workers being charged with a total of 141 counts of cruelty to animals—the largest number in any factory-farmed animal case—and 10 former workers have been convicted so far. At another humane-certified facility, Sweet Stem Farm, a PETA investigator found pigs crammed into severely crowded sheds on concrete floors and with painful, bloody rectal prolapses as large as an orange that were left untreated.

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.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.