{"id":5281,"date":"2025-03-10T17:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T21:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/?p=5281"},"modified":"2025-03-17T15:06:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:06:38","slug":"breaking-class-action-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/breaking-class-action-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Farm Forward\u2019s abuse investigation results in class action lawsuit against Alexandre Family Farm, Certified Humane"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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The fraud, corruption, and systemic animal abuses of Alexandre Family Farm <\/span>revealed by Farm Forward<\/span><\/a> have resulted in the filing of <\/span>a consumer class action lawsuit against the mega-dairy. Humane Farm Animal Care, the group behind the \u201cCertified Humane\u201d label, has also been sued as part of the action. This civil case follows <\/span>a separate case<\/span><\/a> enforcing California criminal statutes that prohibit animal cruelty, filed against Alexandre in late 2024, which indicts the dairy for serious and pervasive animal abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new civil case<\/a> alleges that Alexandre and Certified Humane falsely represented Alexandre products as \u201chumane\u201d while Alexandre engaged in shocking and widespread acts of animal cruelty<\/b>. For example, Farm Forward\u2019s investigation found that Alexandre staff poured salt into the eyes of hundreds of cows, sawed off the horns of more than 800 cows through tissue laced with nerves without any pain management, cut off a cow\u2019s teat with an unsanitized pocketknife, dragged a cow who was unable to walk across concrete, for years provided no routine veterinary or hoof care management, and transported sick, injured, and lame cows to auction rather than treating or euthanizing them.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the court finds that Alexandre and\/or Certified Humane engaged in false, fraudulent, misleading, unfair, deceptive, and\/or unlawful conduct in their representations about the humane status of Alexandre products, the suit could result in <\/span>Alexandre having to pay affected consumers more than $5,000,000<\/b>. <\/span>This lawsuit puts producers everywhere on notice that today\u2019s consumers will hold them accountable for <\/b>humanewashing<\/b><\/a>\u2014false promises of animal welfare.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to holding Alexandre accountable, the lawsuit builds on questions our investigative report raised \u201cabout whether the Certified Humane program adequately or effectively audits businesses approved to use their label\u201d (\u201cDairy Deception<\/a>\u201d page 31). The suit alleges that, based on Certified Humane\u2019s own representations, <\/span>Certified Humane was aware of the conditions at Alexandre in the years leading up to our report, yet took no action to remove Alexandre from its certification program or prevent Alexandre from using the Certified Humane logo on Alexandre\u2019s products or website.<\/b><\/p>\n

Consumers in the class action suit will be represented by <\/span>Richman Law & Policy (RLP)<\/span><\/a>, an experienced litigation firm that focuses on consumer protection and the domestic food supply. RLP has represented and\/or co-counseled with groups including <\/span>Socially Responsible Agriculture Project<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Global Witness<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>GC Resolve<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Food and Water Watch<\/span><\/a>. RLP served as<\/span> lead counsel in <\/span>Jones v. Monsanto <\/span><\/i>(W.D. Mo.), which resulted in a $39.55 million fund for consumers, along with agreed-upon changes to Roundup weedkiller products labels. RLP was co-lead counsel in <\/span>Goldemberg v. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.<\/span><\/i> (S.D.N.Y.), which resulted in a $7 million fund for consumers and agreed-upon changes to the marketing of Aveeno personal care products.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawsuit includes new findings of Alexandre\u2019s animal abuses and Certified Humane\u2019s complicity<\/span><\/h2>\n

While primarily relying on the evidence uncovered by Farm Forward, the lawsuit also reveals new findings of an independent investigator, previously unknown to Farm Forward, who visited Alexandre during the period covered by our investigation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The investigator found calves in barred hutches who were covered in feces, urine, and mud, many of them\u00a0standing in pools of waste rising above the calves\u2019 hooves, the slurry completely covering the only area where the calves could lie down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In clear violation of Certified Humane standards, calves in these hutches could not set one foot outside, had no access to an exercise area, and were left in hutches for a full month longer than the eight week maximum allowed by Certified Humane standards. One calf had an ear tag that appeared to show a birth date four months prior to the investigator\u2019s visit, suggesting that the calf had been hutched for two months beyond Certified Humane\u2019s eight week age limit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The investigator, who has observed many calf hutches on many farms, describes the hutches as the least sanitary the investigator had ever seen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Certified Humane is incriminated by these conditions as much as Alexandre.<\/b> Certified Humane assures customers that animal products bearing the Certified Humane Raised & Handled logo \u201ccome from operations that meet precise, objective standards for farm animal treatment.\u201d Yet Certified Humane took no action to prevent Alexandre from using the Certified Humane logo on Alexandre\u2019s products or website, despite Certified Humane\u2019s standards requiring that the calves must be:<\/span><\/p>\n