Animal Rights Activists Want Trader Joe's To Cut Ties With Petaluma Poultry

SAN DIEGO, CA — Animal rights advocates will protest in front of a Trader Joe's in Pacific Beach Sunday afternoon to demand that the grocery chain stop purchasing chickens from Petaluma Poultry.

Sunday's protest was set to begin at 4:30 p.m. at 1640 Garnet Ave., and is one of many that Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is holding over the weekend at Trader Joe's in multiple states.

On Saturday, the group staged a demonstration in front of a Trader Joe's in Encino, playing audio of chickens screaming during slaughter, holding signs and banners and engaged shoppers. They also gathered near the home of Trader Joe's CEO Bryan Palbaum, who lives nearby.

DxE accuses Petaluma Poultry, a subsidiary of poultry giant Perdue Foods, of extreme animal cruelty including boiling birds alive and leaving them without food or water.

DxE has been lobbying Trader Joe's to sever ties with the poultry company for years, and its investigators say they've documented multiple violations of California's animal cruelty laws at Petaluma farms since 2018. DxE also alleges that conditions at the slaughterhouse pose a health risks to humans.

Neither Trader Joe's nor Petaluma Poultry responded to a request for comment, but on its website, Petaluma Poultry says it is "dedicated to sustainable farming practices to ensure animal welfare and environmental stewardship and are validated by a 3rd-party audit including the Global Animal Partnership."

Trader Joe's, which is headquartered in Monrovia, had sought to ban protests inside and outside its 205 California stores, but a judge recently denied the bid to ban protests outside the stores.

— City News Service