Vegan activists disrupt shopping at Rockville Whole Foods store
On the 9th of August, Vegan activists from Direct Action Everywhere entered the Whole Foods on Rockville Pike in MD and staged a noisy speakout at the back of the meat section. Protesters charged that ALL animal products sold as "humane" at Whole Foods are just as fraudulent as the now notorious eggs from caged hens, and that these labels are meaningess.
One of the labels seen at Whole Foods is the "animal care certified" label that has been debunked for being used on such products as eggs from battery cage hens held 4 to a newspaper sized cage. Compassion over Killing has sought to ban that label as fraudulent for years. Also common is the "certified humane" label, which claims animals live happy lives, yet the Direct Action Everywhere undercover videographer of an eg supplier using this very label showed hens in utter filth, caged in their own waste.
Whole Foods staffers tried to convince everyone to leave, but were ignored as speakers continued disrupting the meat section for about 15 minutes. At that point protesters exited the store and continued to protest in the parking lot for another 15 minutes.
During the street protest, a drunk tried to intimidate and even assaulted one of the speakers during the but was unable even to get her to abandon her message. Cops arrived as protesters were wrapping up, but they asked only that the sideewalk not be blocked.
One of the protesters, Lisa Qualls had this to say: "Whole Foods tells people that they are an industry leader in animal care, but if they're a leader. that says a lot about what we should expect from everyone else, because the (youtube) undercover video expose shows animals sick and dying in filth at a Whole Foods supplier.Whole Foods is lying to people because what they want is money, they don't care about animal welfare. There's no way to use someone humanely."