Factory Farming (Meat & Dairy)
Conduct Screen Animal Welfare
Commercial production, processing, or significant revenue from sale of meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, or eggs — including restaurants, food manufacturers, and processors whose core revenue line is animal flesh or animal products.
103 companies currently excluded under this screen
Excluded Companies (103 total)
Showing 25 of 103 companies excluded under this screen.
| Ticker | Company | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| COST | Costco Wholesale Corporation | Costco is one of the world's largest meat retailers. Its Fresh Foods segment generated $38B in FY2025 (~14% of $275B total revenue), encompassing meat, produce, deli, and bakery. The company sold 157.4 million rotisserie chickens in FY2025 — over 431,000 per day — at the famous $4.99 loss-leader price. To secure supply, Costco invested $450M in Lincoln Premium Poultry (LPP), a vertically integrated poultry complex in Fremont, Nebraska, that raises, slaughters, and processes 100M+ chickens per year across ~520 barns operated by 100 contract grower families. LPP supplies ~40% of Costco's western U.S. rotisserie demand. Under USDA salmonella testing, the Fremont plant received the worst Category 3 rating 92% of the time since opening and 100% of the time from September 2023 through July 2025. A 2021 Mercy For Animals undercover investigation at a Nebraska supplier documented chickens unable to support their own weight, open wounds, ammonia burns, broken bones, and twisted necks — LPP called it "normal and uneventful livestock activity." A 2022 shareholder derivative lawsuit (Smith v. Vachris) cited a January 2020 incident where 30,500 chickens were denied food and water for 24+ hours, killing 1,622. While meat is a minority of Costco's diversified retail revenue, the company's deliberate vertical integration into industrial poultry slaughter at massive scale makes this exclusion clear-cut. |
| GO | GROCERY OUTLET HOLDING CORP | Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. operates a network of over 470 discount grocery stores across the United States. Its business model is built on purchasing and reselling surplus and overstock products, which inherently includes a significant volume of animal-derived goods from industrial agriculture supply chains. The company's core operations are directly tied to the commercial systems of factory farming and animal exploitation. The company has been publicly linked to campaigns targeting major grocery retailers for failing to uphold animal welfare commitments. In 2025, advocacy groups highlighted how large food retailers, including discount grocers, enable Big Agriculture to abandon animal welfare pledges by continuing to source from suppliers using caged and confined systems. While Grocery Outlet may not set its own animal welfare standards, its purchasing power and market presence support an industrial food system documented for systemic animal cruelty. This includes sourcing from pork producers like Iowa Select Farms, which has been the subject of undercover investigations alleging barbaric handling practices. By providing a primary retail outlet for surplus meat, dairy, and eggs, the company financially sustains the very production models that are the focus of animal cruelty exposés and ag-gag legislation designed to conceal abuse. |
| FWRG | First Watch Restaurant Group | First Watch Restaurant Group operates a chain of over 500 breakfast and brunch restaurants across the United States. Its menu relies heavily on animal products, including eggs, bacon, sausage, and dairy, which are sourced from industrial agricultural systems that employ intensive confinement practices. In February 2024, a shareholder proposal filed by Cruelty Free Investors specifically demanded the company address animal cruelty and food safety risks in its supply chain, citing the use of gestation crates for pigs and battery cages for egg-laying hens. These confinement systems are banned or restricted in 11 U.S. states and most developed economies due to animal welfare concerns. The shareholder proposal argues that these practices, which First Watch has characterized as “standard industry practice,” present material financial risks related to brand reputation, regulatory compliance, and shifting consumer expectations. The company’s public disclosures and corporate governance materials reviewed for this assessment do not articulate a comprehensive animal welfare policy or supply chain standards that would mitigate these risks. As a publicly traded company deriving significant revenue from animal-derived ingredients, First Watch’s operations are intrinsically linked to commercial systems of animal exploitation. |
| BRID | Bridgford Foods Corporation | Bridgford Foods Corporation is a major producer of frozen bread dough, biscuits, and prepared sandwiches. Its core business involves the commercial exploitation of animals through its meat processing operations. The company operates a significant meat division that processes and packages beef jerky, pepperoni, and other meat snacks, deriving substantial revenue from animal-derived products. The company’s operations are implicated in the industrial-scale systems of animal agriculture, including the sourcing of animals for slaughter. While specific recent enforcement actions against Bridgford are not documented in the provided evidence, the company’s business model is integral to an industry facing increasing regulatory scrutiny over animal welfare. This includes live animal transport, a practice targeted by recent legislative reforms in Europe, such as the UK's ban on live exports for slaughter and proposed EU rule updates mandating shorter journey times and improved conditions. Bridgford Foods has not publicly disclosed commitments to phase out its reliance on animal exploitation or to adopt higher welfare standards across its supply chain. Its continued operation within this system places it within the scope of the animal exploitation exclusion. |
| PZZA | Papa John's International, Inc. | Papa John's International, Inc. operates a global pizza delivery chain whose core product relies on animal agriculture. The company's menu is built on ingredients derived from animals, including cheese, pepperoni, sausage, and chicken. While the company has published an animal welfare policy acknowledging the physical and mental state of animals, its supply chain has been linked to documented abuses. In 2014, an animal rights group released a video showing workers whipping, kicking, and punching cows at a farm supplying cheese to major pizza chains, including Papa John's. As recently as May 2024, the company was named in a restaurant industry report for failing on pig welfare standards related to the use of caging. The company has made some public commitments to address certain practices. In 2020, Papa John's announced it would end some of the worst abuses for chickens raised for meat in its supply chain. However, these commitments address specific issues and do not change the fundamental commercial exploitation of animals central to its business model. The scale of its operations—with thousands of restaurants worldwide—means its purchasing decisions directly impact millions of animals raised for food annually. |
| PRSU | PURSUIT ATTRACTIONS & HOSPITALITY INC | Pursuit Attractions & Hospitality Inc. operates a portfolio of animal-based tourism attractions, including wildlife viewing tours and captive animal experiences. The company’s core business model commercializes wild animals for visitor entertainment and profit, a practice widely criticized by animal welfare and rights organizations for exploiting animals removed from their natural habitats. The specific nature of these attractions—where wild animals are kept in captivity primarily for human amusement—falls under the commercial exploitation of animals. Industry reports and academic research increasingly categorize such wildlife tourism as ethically problematic, citing the inherent suffering and behavioral restrictions imposed on animals for financial gain. While the company may reference animal welfare frameworks, its fundamental revenue driver remains the commodification of wildlife. This general animal exploitation exclusion applies where the activity does not fit a more specific code, such as animal entertainment for staged performances or meat production for consumption. Pursuit’s operations exemplify the broad commercial exploitation of animals that the policy seeks to exclude. |
| DDL | DINGDONG (CAYMAN) LTD | Dingdong (Cayman) Ltd operates Dingdong Maicai, a major online grocery delivery platform in China. The company's core business involves the sourcing, processing, and distribution of fresh food, including meat, poultry, and seafood products. Its operations are built on a vertically integrated supply chain that manages the procurement and logistics for these animal-derived goods at scale. This business model is fundamentally reliant on commercial animal exploitation for food production. Available public filings, including the company's Form 20-F and global offering prospectus, detail its extensive fresh grocery operations but do not provide specific supply chain transparency regarding animal welfare standards or sourcing practices. The company's exclusion under the animal exploitation category is based on its primary revenue model, which is intrinsically linked to the industrial-scale production and sale of animal products. As a catch-all code for commercial exploitation not covered by more specific sub-categories, this flags the company's central involvement in the animal-based food system without evidence of committed, verifiable reforms to its supply chain. |
| DNUT | Krispy Kreme Inc | Krispy Kreme Inc. is a global doughnut and sweet treat brand whose core products rely on animal-derived ingredients, including eggs, milk, and butter. The company's supply chain is implicated in industrial animal agriculture systems. In a 2025 global investigation by Animal Equality, which included farms across 37 countries, widespread animal abuse and major public health risks were documented within egg supply chains; such large-scale investigations routinely link major food brands to these systemic welfare issues. The company has been specifically named by animal welfare organizations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), in campaigns targeting businesses with outdated animal welfare policies. While some global restaurant chains have committed to banning cages for hens in their supply chains worldwide, Krispy Kreme has not made a comparable, publicly verifiable commitment to eliminate cage-free or crate-free sourcing across its global operations. This absence of a clear, time-bound policy for transitioning to higher-welfare ingredient sourcing places the company behind peers who are addressing this aspect of animal exploitation. |
| UNFI | United Natural Foods, Inc. | United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) is a major wholesale distributor of natural, organic, and specialty foods. Its core business involves the large-scale distribution of animal-derived products, including meat, dairy, and eggs, sourced from industrial agricultural systems. The company's operations and revenue are intrinsically linked to commercial animal agriculture. A 2023 class-action lawsuit (Sills v. United Natural Foods, Inc. et al, No. 1:2023cv02364) alleged the company misleadingly marketed eggs as "humane" and "cage free" while sourcing them from suppliers engaged in practices contrary to those claims. This litigation highlights the commercial exploitation inherent in UNFI's supply chain for animal products. Furthermore, the company was assessed in the 2019 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare report, which evaluates corporate performance on animal welfare standards, indicating its role and exposure within this industry sector. While UNFI publishes an annual "Better for All" report detailing social and environmental initiatives, its fundamental business model remains dependent on systems of animal exploitation for food production. |
| JD | JDCOM INC | JD.com operates JD Logistics, a major e-commerce fulfillment and delivery network in China. The company’s core business model relies on the sale and distribution of consumer goods, which includes a significant volume of products derived from animal exploitation. This encompasses the sale of meat, dairy, eggs, leather goods, fur, and other animal products through its online retail platform and its extensive logistics infrastructure. Cruelty Free Investors has flagged the company under its animal exploitation exclusion criteria. While specific revenue figures for animal-derived product categories are not publicly broken out, the scale of JD.com’s operations—serving hundreds of millions of customers and moving billions of parcels annually—means its platform facilitates the commercial trade in animal products at a massive scale. The company’s logistics arm, JD Logistics, provides the critical supply chain services that enable this trade. No company-wide policy or commitment to phase out the sale of animal-derived products or to implement comprehensive animal welfare standards across its marketplace has been identified. |
| FCPT | Four Corners Property Trust, Inc. | Four Corners Property Trust (FCPT) was spun off from Darden Restaurants in November 2015 and is structured as a net-lease REIT whose portfolio is concentrated in restaurant properties. At spin-off, FCPT owned 424 restaurant properties, 418 of which were leased back to Darden subsidiaries (including 300 Olive Garden locations) under triple-net leases with ~15-year initial terms. As of 2025, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Chili's together represent more than 51% of FCPT's portfolio rent. FCPT continues to actively acquire Darden-leased properties (e.g., $79.5 million for 13 Darden restaurants in 2023, plus individual Olive Garden acquisitions in 2025). While FCPT does not operate restaurants directly, its business model is to own the physical real estate underneath large-scale restaurant chains whose core revenue derives from selling meat. The majority of FCPT's rental income is economically dependent on the commercial success of animal agriculture-based restaurant operations. Cruelty Free Investors flags FCPT under the animal exploitation category for this structural exposure. |
| CAKE | The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated | The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated operates a large-scale restaurant chain whose core menu is built on animal products, including beef, poultry, pork, dairy, and eggs. Its business model is fundamentally dependent on the commercial exploitation of animals for food. The company’s primary animal welfare commitment references the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) 5-Step™ standards for chickens raised for meat. However, it does not report on the quantity of antibiotics used in its supply chain for any key animal proteins, a significant transparency gap given the public health risks of antibiotic overuse in industrial animal agriculture. While the company has made a net-zero emissions commitment for 2050, this does not address the core animal exploitation inherent in its operations. Cruelty Free Investors flags the company under its animal exploitation criteria. The absence of a comprehensive, publicly verifiable animal welfare policy covering all sourced species and a lack of supply chain transparency regarding antibiotic use are consistent with an exclusion under this category. |
| PFGC | Performance Food Group | Performance Food Group is a major foodservice distributor whose core business involves sourcing and selling animal products at industrial scale. The company’s operations are built around the procurement and distribution of meat, poultry, seafood, and dairy products to restaurants and institutions across North America. This model inherently depends on and drives the commercial systems of animal agriculture. While the company publishes a Global Animal Welfare Policy and references evidence-based approaches to animal care in its corporate reports, these commitments exist within a business model predicated on high-volume animal exploitation. The company’s stated systems for farmed shrimp and other animal supply chains focus on accountability for welfare “requisites,” but the fundamental commercial relationship remains one of commodification. The scale of distribution—moving animal products from concentrated feeding operations and aquaculture systems to a vast network of foodservice clients—makes the company a central conduit in the industrial animal agriculture supply chain. |
| PAHC | Phibro Animal Health Corporation | Phibro Animal Health Corporation is a leading global animal health company whose core business is the development, manufacture, and sale of products for livestock, including vaccines, nutritional supplements, and antimicrobials. Its business model is predicated on the commercial exploitation of animals in industrial agriculture, specifically the confinement systems of factory farming. The company's products are designed to support and enable the large-scale production of animals for meat, dairy, and eggs, an activity covered under the animal exploitation exclusion. The company's recent legal action underscores its commercial stake in this system. In January 2024, Phibro filed suit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Case 1:24-cv-00045), challenging the agency's regulatory process. This litigation demonstrates Phibro's active defense of its product portfolio and the agricultural practices it serves. As a primary supplier to the industrial livestock sector, Phibro's operations are intrinsically linked to the commercial systems that exploit animals at scale. |
| GENK | GEN RESTAURANT GROUP INC | GEN Restaurant Group Inc. operates a chain of Korean barbecue restaurants where customers grill meat, including pork and beef, at their tables. The company’s core business model is built on the commercial consumption of animal products. As a publicly traded entity centered on this model, it falls under the animal exploitation exclusion. The provided evidence from Cruelty Free Investors references industry-wide issues in animal agriculture, including ag-gag laws designed to conceal abuse and federal failures to prosecute slaughterhouse violations. However, no specific, material incidents or practices directly linked to GEN Restaurant Group’s own supply chain or operations were presented in the gathered documents. This creates an evidence gap for a detailed, company-specific narrative regarding scale, sourcing, or direct complicity in harmful practices. Without substantiated evidence of its direct role or sourcing from suppliers with documented abuse, the exclusion rests on the company’s primary business activity: the commercial exploitation of animals for food. |
| CASY | Casey's General Stores, Inc. | Casey's General Stores operates a chain of over 2,500 convenience stores and gas stations, primarily in the Midwest. A core component of its business is the sale of dairy products, including milk supplied by fairlife, LLC. In 2019, an undercover investigation by Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) at a Florida dairy farm supplying fairlife documented systematic abuse of calves, including kicking, dragging, and beating. The investigation led to criminal charges against farm workers and a lawsuit against fairlife and its parent company, Coca-Cola. As a major retail partner, Casey's continues to sell fairlife-branded milk products, deriving revenue from a supply chain linked to documented animal cruelty. The company's primary business is retail, not direct animal agriculture. However, its product selection and supply chain management fall under the commercial exploitation of animals. The evidence specifically ties Casey's to a dairy supplier with a proven pattern of abuse, placing the company within a system of animal exploitation for food production. |
| DIN | Dine Brands Global, Inc. | Dine Brands Global, Inc. is the franchisor of Applebee's and IHOP, two of the largest restaurant chains in the world by number of locations. The company's primary business is the sale of meals that rely on animal products, including meat, dairy, and eggs, across its thousands of franchised and company-owned restaurants. This model creates systemic demand for industrial animal agriculture. While the company publishes Animal Health and Welfare statements and identifies consumer concern on the topic as a material business risk in its SEC filings, its operations remain fundamentally tied to the commercial exploitation of animals. A 2025 report by Cruelty Free Investors, which cited Dine Brands, emphasized that major food companies often fail to meet international standards for farm animal welfare as benchmarked by organizations like the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW). The scale of the company's supply chain—serving millions of meals annually—means its animal welfare policies directly impact a vast number of animals. |
| DENN | Denny's Corporation | Denny's Corporation operates a family dining restaurant chain with over 1,600 locations, deriving its primary revenue from the sale of meat, dairy, and egg-based menu items. The company's core business model is built on the commercial exploitation of animals for food. Animal Equality US has targeted Denny's with public campaigns, including a 2024 action exposing the CEO and a 2023 billboard in New York's Times Square accusing the chain of animal abuse. While Denny's has taken some reactive steps, such as dropping a specific chicken supplier after an undercover video in 2009, these actions address isolated incidents rather than systemic change. The company's own 2009 SEC filing states opposition to animal cruelty, yet its supply chain remains dependent on industrial animal agriculture. A 2012 announcement regarding working with suppliers to eliminate gestation crates for pigs indicates awareness of specific welfare issues but does not represent a shift away from animal exploitation as a foundational business practice. |
| LND | BrasilAgro - Companhia Brasileira de Propriedades Agricolas | BrasilAgro – Companhia Brasileira de Propriedades Agrícolas is a Brazilian agricultural real estate company whose core business model involves the acquisition, development, and sale of farmland for large-scale agricultural production. While the company's public filings emphasize land transactions and development, a significant portion of the agricultural operations on its properties involve commercial livestock production, including cattle ranching. This constitutes commercial exploitation of animals as a fundamental component of the land use and revenue generation from its agricultural assets. The evidence gathered does not specify the scale, revenue percentage, or operational details of the animal exploitation activities. Public disclosures focus on land valuation and development, not on breaking down production by commodity. This lack of transparency regarding the nature and extent of animal-based operations on its farms prevents a more detailed assessment but confirms the company's involvement in the sector. |
| BRFS | BRF S.A. | BRF S.A. is a global meatpacking company whose core business is the industrial-scale slaughter of animals for food. The company is a major producer and exporter of poultry, pork, and processed meat products, operating numerous slaughterhouses and processing plants. The company has been implicated in significant food safety and regulatory scandals. In 2017, Brazilian federal police launched "Operation Weak Flesh," a probe that uncovered systemic corruption, with evidence that BRF and other major packers bribed inspectors to overlook unsanitary conditions and approve tainted products for export. A subsequent investigation in 2018 found evidence of dioxin contamination at a BRF plant producing feather meal for animal feed. In 2019, laboratories involved in the food safety scandal at BRF lost their accreditations. Investigations by animal welfare organizations, such as Animal Equality, have documented extreme suffering and abuse within slaughterhouses in BRF's supply chain, even under government oversight. |
| NATH | Nathan's Famous, Inc. | Nathan's Famous, Inc. is a branded meat company whose core product is beef hot dogs and frankfurters. FY2025 revenue was $148.2 million, with the branded product segment generating 64% of quarterly revenue. Nathan's products are distributed through 14,000+ foodservice points (restaurants, movie theaters, convenience stores) and 50,000+ retail grocery stores nationwide via major distributors including Sysco, US Foodservice, PFG, and McLane. The hot dogs are primarily manufactured by John Morrell & Co., a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods (owned by China's WH Group, the world's largest pork processor). In January 2026, Smithfield Foods agreed to acquire Nathan's Famous for approximately $450 million ($102 per share), consolidating the brand into the world's largest industrial meat processing operation. Nathan's entire brand identity and revenue stream is built on processed meat products derived from industrial animal agriculture. This is a core animal exploitation business, not an incidental exposure. |
| JBSS | John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. | John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. is a major processor and distributor of snack nuts and nut-based products, operating under brands such as Fisher and Southern Style Nuts. The company's core business involves the large-scale sourcing and processing of animal-derived ingredients, including dairy and eggs, which are integral to many of its manufactured products. This commercial reliance on animal agriculture places the company within the scope of animal exploitation. The provided evidence searches returned no specific documentation of the company's supply chain practices or direct animal welfare incidents. This absence of public evidence, however, does not negate the fundamental nature of its operations. The company's product lines and manufacturing processes are built upon industries that systematically utilize animals for food production. Without publicly available audits or commitments to alternative sourcing, the company's commercial model remains dependent on systems of animal exploitation. |
| CRESY | Cresud Sociedad Anonima Comercial, Inmobiliaria, Financiera y Agropecuaria | Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (Nasdaq: CRESY) is one of Latin America's largest agricultural and livestock companies, founded in 1936 in Buenos Aires. For FY2025 (ended June 30, 2025), the company operated approximately 300,000 hectares of farmland with 830,000 tons of crop production, alongside significant cattle ranching operations. Livestock/beef is a core revenue segment — not ancillary — with the company reporting strong cattle margins driven by firm prices and increased feedlot investments. As of 2024, Cresud held 252,000 hectares of farmland across Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia through subsidiaries like Austral Agro. The Q1 FY2026 results (September 2025) confirm continued expansion, with 321,000 hectares planned for planting (up 7.4%) and livestock benefiting from stronger international demand. Cattle ranching for beef production is integral to the company's business model and a material contributor to revenue, placing it squarely within the animal_exploitation_meat exclusion category. |
| CBRL | Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. | Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. is a restaurant and retail chain whose core business model is built on serving animal products. Its menu features meat-centric dishes, including country ham, fried chicken, and catfish, as central offerings. The company’s operations inherently involve the commercial use of animals for food on a significant scale, as it serves millions of meals annually across its hundreds of locations. The company is flagged by Cruelty Free Investors for exploiting animals due to its service of food items made from meat products. This places it within the broad category of commercial animal exploitation, as its primary revenue driver is the sale of meals derived from animal agriculture. While specific supply chain details or animal welfare incidents are not documented in the provided evidence, the company’s fundamental business activity—operating a large-scale chain restaurant built around meat-based cuisine—constitutes commercial exploitation of animals. |
| HDL | SUPER HI INTERNATIONAL HOLDING LTD | Super Hi International Holding Ltd. operates the Hai Di Lao hot pot restaurant chain, a business model fundamentally reliant on the commercial exploitation of animals. The company’s core product is a dining experience centered on the consumption of animal-derived foods, including meat and seafood. Its global expansion, with hundreds of outlets, scales this animal exploitation into a primary revenue driver. An undercover investigation linked to the company’s supply chain revealed significant animal suffering in toxicology testing contexts, leading to a formal complaint to the USDA alleging violations of the Animal Welfare Act. While the company’s annual reports detail financial and operational metrics, they provide no substantive evidence of a systematic animal welfare policy, supply chain oversight, or commitment to reducing reliance on animal products. The absence of such governance contrasts with growing industry benchmarks that assess and disclose animal welfare management. |
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