The co-founder of vegan campaign Veganuary, Mattew Glover, has launched a campaign which criticises the RSPCA-assured label, accusing it of “welfare washing”.
Writing on LinkedIn, Glover said the group has launched around 2,750 adverts with the message “Don’t Trust the RSPCA Assured Label” across London Underground carriages.
“Our goal is simple: spark a conversation about welfare-washing and expose the RSPCA’s role in perpetuating this false narrative,” Glover said.
He added that the group is “fully prepared” to escalate the campaign financially and legally, and said he has requested a meeting with outgoing RSPCA CEO Chris Sherwood.
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The campaign also points to a website welfarewashing.org.uk which describes it as a “tactic where companies make false claims about animal welfare to appear ethical while concealing animal suffering”.
Last month, following undercover investigations of RSPCA Assured farms, the RSPCA came under fire from a separate campaign group Adfree Cities, who raised a complaint about the RSPCA’s recent AMV BBDO adverts for being misleading about animal welfare.
The adverts are now under investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The RSPCA has since launched a review after the animal welfare scheme and told the BBC it has sent inspectors to over 200 farms.
Speaking to grocery trade publication The Grocer, an RSPCA spokesperson said the organisation is requesting that Transport for London “remove it from the tube network to avoid further misleading customers”.
The scheme works with leading supermarkets including M&S, Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Lidl, Morrisons and Aldi.
