The Humane Society of the United States recently tried to justify itself after our recent petition asking it and other animal welfare groups to distance themselves from the Global Animal Partnership racked up tens of thousands of signatures in a matter of days. The Global Animal Partnership is a group that basically launders the reputations of factory farms and misleads consumers.
No amount of hand-waving or nuance can excuse the fact that the Global Animal Partnership’s sham certification program, which has the Humane Society of the United States and other animal welfare organizations on its board, gives factory farms a free marketing plug.
Here’s the point-by-point explanation of why the Humane Society of the United States’ “broader context” doesn’t mean anything for animals suffering on factory farms:
Humane Society of the U.S.’ Claims, Debunked
Claim: “G.A.P. and other farmed animal welfare certification programs assess producers’ methods and require improvements that push them to go beyond conventional industry practices.”
“Going beyond conventional industry practices” is the overstatement of the century because standard industry practices are outrageously cruel to begin with. “Certified” farms are almost always nearly indistinguishable from what they were prior to certification and base their marketing on saying they don’t engage in one or a handful of cruel practices or giving each animal a few more inches of space than their competitors do. But the animals still suffer immensely.
Claim: “By working with animal welfare certifiers such as the G.A.P. program, we can begin to address the litany of other common and routine practices that farmed animals endure.”
HSUS could address “the litany of other common and routine practices” without condoning them by remaining on the board of this sham certification system.
Claim: “Certifiers send auditors to the farms and check that they, at least, meet a basic set of standards.”
PETA’s investigations show that even these basic sets of standards were not being met at some GAP-certified farms and that cruelty was taking place right under the noses of GAP auditors and the GAP board. GAP certification requires only one announced inspection every 15 months, which means any given farm would be inspected only four times in any five-year period. And since the inspections are announced, producers can easily hide anything they don’t want inspectors to see.
Claim: “While imperfect, certifications markedly reduce animal suffering.”
PETA investigations show that extreme cruelty goes unnoticed by certification programs like GAP. As a reminder, when Plainville Farms was GAP-approved, PETA’s investigation documented that workers kicked, beat, and threw turkeys and left sick and injured birds to suffer without treatment. As a result of that investigation, former workers were charged with a total of 141 counts of cruelty to animals, including six felonies, and to date, 10 workers have been convicted. At another certified facility, Sweet Stem Farm, an investigator found pigs crammed into severely crowded sheds on concrete floors and with painful, bloody rectal prolapses as large as an orange that were left untreated. It’s scandalous that HSUS remains on the GAP board and stands by the program after these damning investigations.
Claim: “Without us at the table to represent the animals impacted, this important tool will wither and weaken.”
It already has—despite having HSUS on its board! HSUS is overstating the impact of GAP and distracting from its massive failures. The vast majority of certified farms appear to be at the lowest step rating, and the bar has been set extremely low in order to accommodate companies owned by Perdue and other massive producers. The largest number of cruelty charges in any farmed animal cruelty case were filed based on findings at GAP-certified farms, proving how ineffectual this certification program really is.
Claim: “Certifications also have segregation protocols to ensure that cage eggs are not sold as cage free, which is a vital component of our work with companies to implement their cage-free egg commitments.”
Various federal and state labeling laws already impose this obligation.
Claim: “Our collaboration with certifiers helps us connect companies to farms that are better than the industry standard.”
Decades of attempted animal welfare reforms have failed, and the industry is inventing new ways to increase efficiency at the expense of animal welfare faster than regulations can respond to them. These practices quickly become standard in the industry and ingrained even on “humane” farms. Examples of this are burning off chicks’ beaks in the egg industry, “thumping” sick or runted baby piglets (i.e., slamming their heads against a wall), and establishing ventilation shutdown for the mass-killing of animals, which suffocates them and, with the addition of heat, also bakes them to death.
Claim: “The new standard due in December sets a timeline for the integration of breeds that have been tested and verified to have better welfare outcomes compared to conventional chickens. It will undoubtedly improve welfare. Knowing that, we intend to stay on the G.A.P. board for at least the next few months to see through completion the Better Chicken Project and updated broiler chicken standards.”
We look forward to HSUS leaving the GAP board upon the program’s implementation of its pathetic “broiler chicken standards.”
These breeds will still be expected to reach slaughter weight at a rapid speed and will have the same serious ailments as typical “broiler” chickens. They will still be overweight, unhealthy birds who can barely walk more than a few steps at a time and will spend their entire lives in pain, forced to stand or sit in their own waste on a crowded shed floor. These birds will still be prone to breast blisters, hock burns, footpad dermatitis, and muscular myopathies. The deceptive Better Chicken Commitment will only help cement abysmal breeding practices while luring consumers into buying products that they believe are humanely produced.
Claim: “The G.A.P. program reduces suffering of farm animals every day by setting the bar at a higher level than conventional production and our involvement has made the program stronger.”
HSUS must use vague and unquantifiable terms like “higher level” and “stronger,” because in reality, it and the other animal welfare organizations serving on the board of GAP (the ASPCA and the CIWF) are powerless to achieve real change. Supporting certification programs like this has completely failed to prevent the type of routine abuse and neglect documented at Plainville Farms and Sweet Stem Farm and continues to allow millions of gentle animals to suffer on factory farms.
Claim: “We intend to stay focused on the course that we believe will do the most good for the most animals.”
Meat, egg, and dairy producers will never allow HSUS, the CIWF, or the ASPCA to have enough power on their boards to meaningfully change their industries in ways that would prioritize animals’ well-being over profit. These organizations are being used as figureheads to give the appearance of legitimacy to misleading animal welfare claims.
Meanwhile, PETA has investigated facilities of many other companies that make various “humane” claims, such as Nellie’s Free Range and Hilliker’s Ranch Fresh Eggs, and found every one of them treating animals abysmally while making misleading claims about how humane they were. And because of groundbreaking lawsuits filed by PETA Foundation lawyers, there are now federal court precedents establishing that labeling claims about “humane” and “ethical” treatment, “highest standard” practices, and freedom to roam outdoors can be actionable false advertising given sellers’ use of industry-standard practices, leading to a surge of lawsuits against brands like Nellie’s.
HSUS, the CIWF, and the ASPCA are doing a disservice to animals by remaining on GAP’s board amid the proliferation of misleading “humane” claims that lull consumers into continuing to buy products they otherwise wouldn’t if they knew the truth behind how they were produced.
Please Help End the ‘Humane’ Lies
Please sign our petition telling the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and CIWF—in no uncertain terms—to immediately resign from the Global Animal Partnership’s board of directors and end their affiliation with the Global Animal Partnership.
