ASPCA and Humane Society criticized for endorsing factory farms with “bogus” humane meat program
The groups have been blasted for supporting an “animal welfare certified” label, despite an investigation finding widespread, systematic animal cruelty at farms that use the certification.
Pigs crammed into a shed at Sweet Stem Farm. The company was “animal welfare certified” by Global Animal Partnership at the time. Credit: PETA
Three of the largest animal welfare groups have been criticized for their endorsement of a controversial “humane meat” labeling scheme.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Humane Society of the United States, and Compassion in World Farming currently all support the Global Animal Partnership, a “humane” meat, egg, and dairy certification program. Leaders from each of the groups feature on the Partnership’s board of directors.
As part of the scheme, farms and products can be certified and label their foods with the “Animal Welfare Certified” logo. “From Farm to Fork, the label you can trust”, the Global Animal Partnership states on its website.
However, the certification scheme has been criticized for being “deceptive” and “misleading” by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The group says a years-long investigation of 12 certified facilities has found widespread and systematic cruelty and suffering at all of the farms visited.
Plainville Farms, a Pennsylvania-based company which was approved by the Global Animal Partnership, were among those investigated by PETA. Workers were documented kicking, beating, and throwing turkeys, and left sick and injured birds to suffer without treatment.
Plainville Farms workers abusing turkeys. The company was “animal welfare certified” by Global Animal Partnership at the time this video was recorded. Credit: PETA
PETA’s investigation into Plainville Farms resulted in former workers being charged with a total of 141 counts of cruelty to animals, including six felonies - the largest number in any factory-farmed animal case in U.S. history - and 10 workers have been convicted.
That such animal cruelty could take place on a certified farm shows that “humane” labeling schemes can not guarantee what they claim to do.
Sweet Stem Farm, a Pennsylvania pig farm that supplied Whole Foods, was another investigated by PETA. Certified as a “Step 2” farm - better than all of those certified in the scheme as “Step 1” - “Step 2” farms were touted by Whole Foods to be spacious and have an enriched environment to keep pigs entertained. A PETA investigator visiting the facility instead found pigs crammed into severely crowded sheds on concrete floors and with painful, bloody rectal prolapses that were left untreated.
PETA is now calling on the leaders from the three welfare groups which support the Global Animal Partnership to step down from the certification scheme’s board of directors.
“An animal welfare group signing off on ‘humane’ meat is like an oncologist endorsing a tobacco company,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a statement. “PETA is calling on the leadership of the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States, and Compassion in World Farming to stop betraying animals and duping consumers by putting their seal of approval on this bogus branding scheme and is urging everyone to do the only thing that will stop animal abuse on farms—go vegan.”
PETA points out that the organizations’ leaders may have hoped being on the board of the Global Animal Partnership would provide an opportunity to improve animal welfare on factory farms. But the initiative has been a “complete failure”, according to PETA. Leadership from PETA was originally on the board when the certification was founded, but left “when it became clear that the initiative was never going to reduce animal suffering”.
Another animal welfare group, Farm Forward, also resigned in protest from the Global Animal Partnership board back in 2020 after more than a decade of support. Farm Forward said the scheme is no longer a tool for change and said it is “increasingly a marketing scheme functioning to benefit massive corporations.”
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