Global Animal Partnership Under Fire After Cruelty Charges Filed Against ‘Humane’ Turkey Supplier’s Ex-Workers

For Immediate Release:
October 12, 2022

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

In the past week, 11 former workers at Plainville Farms, a turkey supplier previously certified “humane” by the Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.), have been charged with 139 counts of cruelty to animals, including six felonies—the largest number in any factory-farmed animal case in U.S. history. PETA fired off a letter today to G.A.P. Executive Director Anne Malleau, pushing her to end the misleading certification program since its “standards” did nothing to prevent the abuse.

G.A.P. suspended Plainville’s “humane” certification only after PETA’s investigation, which led Pennsylvania State Police to file the charges. The group’s investigative evidence shows the workers “kicking, stomping on, beating, throwing, and cruelly killing turkeys on a nightly basis.” Workers even mimicked masturbation and rape with injured and dying birds. Although G.A.P. and its partners claim that their standards prevent abuse, PETA has found abuse—and violations of G.A.P.’s own standards—at all 11 G.A.P.–certified turkey and pig farms that it has investigated.

“Video footage of workers beating turkeys at Plainville suppliers was too horrific for police to ignore, and G.A.P.’s faulty certification system didn’t do a thing to prevent it,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on G.A.P. to stop duping shoppers into believing a ‘humane’ lie—and everyone else to take personal responsibility by eating vegan.”

PETA’s investigation also prompted Whole Foods to pull Plainville’s turkey products from the shelves. Plainville terminated the workers and pledged to start monitoring operations using body cameras—a meaningless move, PETA notes, unless the footage is livestreamed so the public can review it and call out any additional acts of cruelty.

PETA has also submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission alleging that Plainville is engaging in false advertising by making claims on its packaging that turkeys on its suppliers’ farms are raised in a “stress-free environment.”

Broadcast-quality video footage from PETA’s investigation is available here.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.