Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), urging the agency to investigate the company’s claims that its turkeys are humanely raised.
The complaint, sent to Samuel Levine, acting director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, on October 6, requests that the FTC investigate Plainville Farms and enjoins it to stop the use of claims that the turkeys raised for Plainville Farms products were “humanely raised” or were grown in a “stress-free environment.”
“Plainville, through explicit statements and omissions in its advertising, deceives customers by creating the impression that it humanely raises turkeys on its farms. Consumers perceive the claim ‘humanely raised’ to mean that those animals are raised to a standard of care that is higher than general industry practices. Consumers have, and must be able to maintain, a reasonable expectation that when Plainville advertises turkey products from animals who where ‘humanely raised .. in a stress-free environment’ that such a description is truthful. However, this assertion is not true for the turkeys raised by Plainville,” Jared Goodman, vice president and deputy general counsel for animal law, PETA foundation, wrote in the complaint.
PETA filed the complaint after it released an undercover video of a farm in which the workers were mistreating turkeys. PETA asserted that the farm shown in the footage raised turkeys for Plainville Farms.
Responding to the video that depicted animal abuse, Plainville Farms issued the following statement: “We are fully cooperating with law enforcement in order to investigate the PETA allegations, and fully support the prosecution of any individuals found to be involved in the mistreatment of any of our turkeys,” the website statement said.
“Regardless of the outcome of that investigation, none of the individuals addressed in the PETA allegations work for Plainville Farms any longer as of this writing.”
In addition to terminating 13 workers, the company purchased body cameras to monitor all live operations team members. The surveillance footage will be routinely monitored internally and by outside third-party animal welfare experts.
Previously part of Hain Celestial’s Hain Pure Protein segment, Plainville Farms was acquired in 2019 by a newly-formed investor group known as Plainville Brands LLC.
