100,000 Consumers Slam Kikkoman Over Cruel Animal Tests

PETA Launches International Campaign After Soy Sauce Company Refuses to Stop Tormenting Rabbits and Mice in Deadly Experiments

For Immediate Release:
November 11, 2015

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

#KikkomanKills: That’s the message of PETA’s international boycott campaign against the soy sauce company. PETA is calling on Kikkoman to stop using mice, rabbits, and rats in cruel and pointless experiments just to try to make dubious health claims about its products.

Concerned consumers have already sent more than 100,000 e-mails, left 700 Facebook comments with thousands of “likes,” posted hundreds of tweets, and made hundreds of phone calls urging Kikkoman to stop the experiments.

The international vegan-friendly chain Loving Hut—which has more than 130 locations—is urging its restaurants to stop using Kikkoman after hearing from PETA, and several have already done so. And Kikkoman competitor San-J has confirmed to PETA that it does not conduct any animal tests for its products.

PETA has also created a new company logo, and next Wednesday, naked activists will lie in pools of “bloody” soy sauce in a provocative protest outside Kikkoman’s San Francisco headquarters.

In Kikkoman’s experiments, rats were force-fed soy sauce through surgically attached stomach tubes, after which they were decapitated and had their brains removed. Fermented soy milk was forced down rats’ throats through feeding tubes, rabbits were fed high-fat diets to cause heart disease, and mice who were bred to be obese were fed a citrus extract before they were killed and had their muscles removed.

“Rabbits, mice, and rats are force-fed, killed, and dismembered by Kikkoman so it can try to make questionable health claims to help market its soy sauce and other products,” says PETA Director of Laboratory Investigations Justin Goodman. “These archaic experiments are cruel, they’re not required by law, and they’re irrelevant to humans, unlike modern research methods, which use human tissues and volunteers. PETA is calling on Kikkoman to stop these cruel and pointless experiments for good.”

Many other food companies—including Ito En, Barilla, The Coca-Cola Company, and Pepsi—previously agreed to eliminate animal tests after discussions with PETA.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.