Food Fight: PETA Files False-Advertising Complaint Over Whole Foods’ ‘Humane Meat’

Shoppers Are Unaware That Chickens, Cows, and Pigs ‘Treated Humanely’ May Still Be Mutilated, Starved, and Scalded Alive

For Immediate Release:
June 4, 2015

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382

PETA filed a formal complaint this morning with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs asking the agency to compel Whole Foods’ Washington, D.C., stores to stop deceiving consumers into purchasing chickens, turkeys, cows, and pigs with meat-wrapping paper imprinted with the slogan “Thanks for Caring About Animals,” among other misleading signs and representations.

As PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes in its complaint, these signs do not tell shoppers that this meat still comes from animals who may have been castrated, branded, and dehorned (all without painkillers); starved and dehydrated because of lameness; held in intensive confinement in unnatural conditions; and scalded alive while still conscious. All of these practices are permitted or may still occur despite Whole Foods’ hyped “5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards”—and none of them is remotely humane.

“Whole Foods’ promises of ‘humane’ meat are as empty as they are unethical, deceptive, and apparently unlawful,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on D.C. authorities to protect well-intentioned shoppers from being duped into buying the flesh of animals who were mutilated, starved, and scalded alive.”

PETA’s full complaint is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org or PETA’s blog.