Update: PETA Files Opposition to Motion to Dismiss in Whole Foods ‘Humane Meat’ Class-Action Lawsuit, Cites Miserable Lives, Terrifying Deaths of Animals

For Immediate Release:
December 10, 2015

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Yesterday evening, PETA submitted its response opposing Whole Foods’ motion to dismiss the group’s class-action lawsuit against its “humane meat” claims.

PETA’s response underscores that Whole Foods’ in-store advertisements—including signs, placards, and napkins—create the impression that the grocery chain ensures superior treatment of animals, for which it charges a hefty premium. But because its standards for animal welfare are not meaningfully enforced and because key standards differ little, if at all, from the industry’s inhumane, minimum standards, consumers are deceived into paying higher prices. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—has exposed severe crowding, lameness, and death at a Whole Foods “humane” pork supplier. And a subsequent exposé at a Whole Foods “humane” turkey supplier revealed that turkeys are mutilated, suffer from disease, and are trampled to death by other birds inside filthy barns.

“A Whole Foods supplier can be out of compliance year after year without losing its ‘humane’ certification, and proclamations like ‘no cages’ mean nothing when chickens raised for food aren’t caged in the first place but kept in severely crowded sheds,” says PETA Foundation Director of Animal Law Jared Goodman. “PETA’s lawsuit seeks to stop Whole Foods from duping well-meaning customers into paying higher prices for meat from animals they have no idea are still living miserable lives and who have their throats slit in slaughterhouses.”

More information about our lawsuit is available here.