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“We believe ordinary Americans feel compassion for animals. That’s why they are willing to pay a premium for what they think is ‘humane’ meat,” said Diestel investigator Priya Sawhney. “But the truth is the birds at Diestel’s farms suffer tremendously.” Read more from Daily Rocket News here.
The North American Meat Institute, whose members include WalMart & Whole Foods, said enforcing Proposition 12 would hurt producers and consumers. Proposition 12, or the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, sets minimum space requirements for calves raised for veal, breeding pigs and egg-laying hens, and bans the sale of raw veal, pork or eggs from animals enclosed in too little space. Read more from Reuters here. Please note that at the same time Whole Foods & Amazon are attempting to get a restraining order against all animal rights activists at their stores throughout California.
Whole Foods says its mission is to “nourish people and the planet,” but workers at farms that supply the organic-grocery empire are often overworked and poorly treated, an investigation by Oxfam found.
Workers on sweet-potato farms in North Carolina that supply the Amazon.com Inc.–owned grocer reportedly put in 14-hour days in “oppressive heat with few rest breaks” and often with “very limited access to toilets,” according to the report. Read more from MarketWatch here. Today the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the nation’s preeminent legal advocacy organization for animals, filed a lawsuit against the Tillamook County Creamery Association for its misrepresentations about the source of its milk and the conditions in which the cows live. The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a class of Oregon consumers.
Read more from their press release here. Democracy Now discusses recent open rescues and investigations into factory farms that supply corporations like Whole Foods and Amazon. Watch part 2 of the report here.
For years now, Whole Foods has marketed itself as selling meat and animal products that come from animals that are humanely raised. DxE has conducted numerous investigations of farms that supply Whole Foods such as Diestel Turkey Ranch and Petaluma Farms, and the investigative teams have found and documented, in photographs and on video, a wide range of atrocities, including, depending on the farm investigated, dead birds among the living, birds trapped in their own feces, birds crammed together in barns, birds that live their entire short lives inside barns, untreated wounds and/or cannibalisms.
Read more from EcoWatch here. Fowlplay: Please help us hold chicken and turkey producers accountable for deceptive claims!
In 2015, DxE released an investigation of Diestel Turkey Ranch, a top rated Whole Foods farm. We discovered that the images they use in their advertisements were taken at a farm that existed purely for show -- the turkeys actually raised for Whole Foods were held far away in huge, filthy sheds. On Saturday, around 120 volunteers and members of the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) moved in to occupy facilities at Petaluma Poultry, a Northern California farm which supplies chicken and turkey products to Amazon and other food retailers. The activists began live-streaming their actions at the farm early in the afternoon, and staged a medical intervention for birds carried out of the farm's housing.
According to the group, which secretly documented some graphic scenarios at the farm in pictures and video, Petaluma Poultry fowl still endure malnutrition, disease, and dangerous over-crowding, despite marketing materials that promote products as low-cruelty and "free range." Read more from forbes here. Gizmodo reported today that a leaked 45-minute training video for Amazon managers takes an "aggressive" stance on quelling interest in organized labor at its facilities. According to Gizmodo, the video was sent last week to Team Leaders at the Whole Foods grocery chain, which Amazon purchased last year, and where employees have reportedly been considering union membership for themselves.
Read more from Forbes here. Former law professor Wayne Hsiung and the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) that he co-founded, along with dozens of unnamed individuals and affiliates, were sued in Alameda County Superior Court yesterday by Whole Foods Market California Inc. in a complaint seeking to restrain protests against the company.
Hsiung says internal memos from Whole Foods that were secretly passed to DxE by insiders at the company, as well as personal correspondence with Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, demonstrate the company’s intolerance to criticism. The company’s acquisition by Amazon, DxE activists say, has led to a new strategy: stopping activists through litigation. Hsiung says the internal memos show the company’s efforts to characterize peaceful protests as violent. He is currently facing prosecution in three separate matters relating to investigations of Amazon or Whole Foods suppliers. Read more from Indy bay here. Here is a moveon.org petition asking the CEO to stop their attempt to silence activists. |
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