PETA Continues To Blast Whole Foods Over Humane Meat Lawsuit In New Rebuttal

PETA and Whole Foods are still continuing to butt heads in an ongoing lawsuit over the grocery store chain's animal welfare practices. In September, we reported that PETA had filed a lawsuit against Whole Foods for falsely advertising its suppliers' humane treatment of their animals. In response, Whole Foods has submitted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it outlandish and "a waste of tax payers' money." Now this week, PETA has shown it will not give up the fight and has submitted a rebuttal in opposition to Whole Foods' attempt at legal dismissal.

"A Whole Foods supplier can be out of compliance year after year without losing its 'humane' certification, and proclamations like 'no cages' mean nothing when chickens raised for food aren't caged in the first place but kept in severely crowded sheds," says PETA Foundation Director of Animal Law Jared Goodman. "PETA's lawsuit seeks to stop Whole Foods from duping well-meaning customers into paying higher prices for meat from animals they have no idea are still living miserable lives and who have their throats slit in slaughterhouses."

Whole Foods maintains, however, that it upholds top industry standards when it comes to animal welfare practices and follows a five-step rating system to rank supplier treatment of animals.

"The only allegation asserted directly against Whole Foods is that Whole Foods advertises that its meat products are GAP certified under GAP's progressive six-tiered certification program," Whole Foods said in its request for legal dismissal of the lawsuit. "That statement is plenty true and plaintiffs have not alleged any facts to prove otherwise."