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COK Takes Egg Industry to Court for Consumer Fraud & Exposes Cruel Conditions inside New Jersey Egg Factory Farm
Yesterday, Feb. 20, 2008, COK and an egg consumer filed a lawsuit in New Jersey's Middlesex County Superior Court against the United Egg Producers (UEP) and ISE America, a New Jersey egg factory farm, alleging violations of consumer protection laws based on the continued use of the misleading "Animal Care Certified" logo on egg cartons—a deceptive logo that the UEP agreed to stop using almost two years ago.
The UEP's "Animal Care Certified" guidelines permit producers to confine hens in wire battery cages so restrictive, they can barely even move. The Better Business Bureau ruled in 2003 that the logo is misleading, and the UEP signed an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that, as of April 1, 2006, the "Animal Care Certified" claim and logo would no longer be used.
But as recently as Feb. 19, 2008, COK has documented the "Animal Care Certified" logo being advertised on egg cartons in stores in New Jersey. According to the label, these eggs were packaged and distributed by ISE America, an egg factory farm in New Jersey with approximately one million hens confined inside battery cages. In 2007, a COK investigator worked inside ISE America's New Jersey facility, gathering video footage revealing cruel and abusive conditions for hens.
Read more about this lawsuit and watch our investigation video.
"Animal rights groups sues egg producer, trade group over logo"
By Linda Johnson
Associated Press
February 20, 2008
An animal rights group said Wednesday it is suing a large egg producer and an industry trade group, accusing them of breaking New Jersey's consumer fraud law and violating legal agreements with the federal government and 16 states by using a questionable claim on egg cartons.
The legal dispute pits the Washington, D.C.-based group Compassion Over Killing against the United Egg Producers trade group and ISE America, a Galena, Md.-based company that operates a New Jersey egg farm in Franklin Township, Warren County.
At the center of the lawsuit, filed in Middlesex County Superior Court, is the use of the words "Animal Care Certified" in a logo on egg cartons.
Under agreements with the Federal Trade Commission and with the attorneys general in New Jersey, 15 other states and the District of Columbia, egg sellers were to stop using that logo by April 2006, Compassion's general counsel, Cheryl Leahy, said in an interview.
Compassion Over Killing said that United Egg Producers, which licensed use of the logo to egg producers meeting its standards, agreed to replace it with the words "United Egg Producers Certified."
The animal rights group had objected to the original wording, "Animal Care Certified," saying that implied to consumers that the eggs came from well-treated laying hens. But according to the group, the industry standard is to confine hens in stacks of metal cages with too little room to walk around, nest or perch.
As recently as Tuesday, the "Animal Care Certified" logo was on cartons of eggs from ISE America's nearly 1 million-bird New Jersey farm on sale in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware, Leahy said.
"They're misleading consumers by putting this label on the carton… when the real conditions are definitely cruel and abusive," she said.
Read the full article.
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