Hy-Vee Ends ‘Humane Meat’ Claims After PETA Appeal

Midwestern Grocery Chain Removes Misleading Marketing Label

For Immediate Release:
October 25, 2018

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After learning from PETA that animals on so-called “humane” farms are often tightly confined, mutilated, and slaughtered while fully conscious, Des Moines–based grocery chain Hy-Vee—which operates 245 stores in eight states—has removed the word “humane” from its meat marketing materials.

“The only label indicating truly humane food is ‘vegan,’ so Hy-Vee did the right thing in agreeing not to mislead well-intentioned consumers with the ‘humane meat’ myth,” says PETA Director of Corporate Affairs Anne Brainard. “PETA encourages shoppers to stick to vegan meals and speak out against any brand that labels a tormented animal’s flesh as ‘humane.’”

Animals on farms selling “humane” meat are typically mutilated without painkillers, artificially inseminated, kept in crowded conditions without access to sunlight or fresh air, separated from their offspring, and shipped in the freezing cold or suffocating heat to the very same slaughterhouses used by every other meat producer. There, they’re hung upside down and their throats are cut in full view of one another, often while they’re still conscious and struggling to escape.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat.” For more information, please visit PETA.org.