Happy Egg Co.’s Misleading Claims Prompt PETA Complaints to FTC and Arkansas Attorney General
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Today, PETA submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and fired off a letter to Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin arguing that misleading marketing claims made by locally based Happy Egg Co.—and propagated by actor Will Arnett in paid advertisements for the company on his SmartLess podcast—amount to false advertising. PETA is asking the FTC and the Arkansas attorney general to investigate Happy Egg Co. and hold it accountable for any and all violations of federal or state law.
The action comes after PETA sent Arnett a letter urging him to cease making claims in the ads that birds used by the commercial egg producer—whose hatcheries sear off parts of hens’ beaks to prevent the stressed birds from mutilating each other and slaughters them when their egg production drops—“live their best hen lives.”
“No one’s idea of their ‘best life’ would ever include being packed into a severely crowded shed, mutilated, and slaughtered, as hens in the egg industry are,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging the FTC and the Arkansas attorney general to act to protect consumers from being suckered in by Happy Egg Co.’s misleading claims and warning shoppers to watch out for humane-washing labels such as ‘free-range.’”
PETA points out that Happy Egg Co. admits that it confines up to 20,000 hens per facility—and is required to give the birds as little as only a square foot of floor space each, making it difficult or even impossible for them to attain access to the outdoors. A study of “free-range” operations revealed that, on average, only 12.5% of hens actually made it outside, and at some facilities, the number was as low as 3%. With avian flu sweeping through commercial chicken flocks, it has become common practice for facilities to lock their chickens indoors indefinitely, but they’re still allowed to market their eggs as “free-range.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
