"Companies like Perdue are exploiting the dramatic growth of consumer demand for improved animal welfare for their own profit," Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president and a chief counsel for HSUS, said in a statement. "Rather than implementing humane reforms, Perdue has simply slapped 'humanely raised' stickers on its factory farmed products, hoping consumers won't know the difference."

The suit was brought on behalf of a New Jersey woman who bought a Perdue Harvestland chicken, which is marketed as being “purely all-natural” and “humanely raised.” The HSUS claims that raising birds according to the National Chicken Council welfare guidelines is not humane treatment, and that slaughtering them by industry-standard techniques causes unnecessary pain to the animals.