PETA Protester Arrested at Humane Society Gala in Fracas Over Factory Farms
For Immediate Release:
November 1, 2024
Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382
A PETA supporter wearing a pig costume and carrying a sign reading, “Stop Promoting Sham Humane Certifications,” was arrested by police while chaining himself to the door of Cipriani 42nd Street where the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) was holding a fundraiser, in protest over the group’s support of a humane-washing scheme that props up inherently cruel factory farming. Two other PETA supporters disrupted the event, holding signs and chanting, “Stop betraying animals!”
The protesters were among dozens of animal allies gathered at the event to urge Humane Society leaders to resign from the board of directors of Global Animal Partnership—a program that allows animal-exploiting companies to place misleading “animal welfare certified” labels on factory farmed meat, eggs, and dairy, even though PETA has documented widespread, systemic cruelty, much of it severe, at all 12 “certified” facilities it investigated.
Credit: PETA
“The Humane Society vouching for filthy factory farms, where animals endure misery and pain before experiencing a violent, terrifying death, is a betrayal of animals and consumers,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the Humane Society of the United States to prove that its name is worth the paper it’s printed on by cutting ties with this animal abuse–enabling scam.”
PETA’s investigation into Plainville Farms—which at the time was Global Animal Partnership–certified—documented that workers kicked, beat, and threw turkeys and left ailing birds to suffer without treatment. As a result of the investigation, former workers were charged with six felonies and a total of 141 counts of cruelty to animals—the largest number in any factory-farmed animal case in U.S. history—and 10 former workers have been convicted so far. PETA’s investigation into Sweet Stem Farm, which was also certified by Global Animal Partnership at the time, revealed that pigs were crammed into severely crowded sheds and had painful, bloody rectal prolapses.
The group previously appealed to the leaders of HSUS, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and Compassion in World Farming, urging them to step down from the board of directors of Global Animal Partnership, as PETA and another group, Farm Forward, did.
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.
