Shop With Your Heart

We Are Animal People

Animals make our lives better in so many ways—let’s return the love. A few simple changes to how we shop can improve life for billions of chickens, pigs and cows.

As a consumer, you have the power to change how food companies treat farm animals. Take the first step today: Sign up to Shop With Your Heart and we’ll send you everything you need—lists of brands, label guides, ways to take action and updates on progress we’re making for farm animals with your help!

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Our Shop With Your Heart community is 68,000+ people strong! Join Us Today >

You’re changing farm animals’ lives:

• 100+ welfare-certified products have been added to our Shop With Your Heart brand list.
• 100+ additional brands, restaurants and other food companies have committed to better farm animal welfare backed up by certification.

Everyone Can Make a Difference

Consumers

Resources for finding more humane food, like lists of brands and label guides, along with tools to help you ask for better products where you shop.

Advocates

Help us fight for stronger laws to protect farm animals, and learn about the progress that has already been made on this front.

Businesses

Information for farmers, restaurants, and other food businesses looking to adopt strong, transparent animal welfare policies and practices—we’re here to help!

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to “Shop With Your Heart”?

Shopping with your heart means using your purchasing power to improve farm animals’ lives by rejecting factory-farmed meat, eggs and dairy. Opt for plant-based alternatives or animal products bearing meaningful animal welfare certifications: Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Humane and Global Animal Partnership Steps 2+.

Visit our Bring Your Store On Board page to see other ways to have a big impact and get your local market involved. You can drop off a request for certified items with your supermarket manager, tweet at your store asking for higher-welfare products or review it on Yelp. We also hope that you'll share information about this issue with friends and family. Every little bit helps.

What has the ASPCA’s Shop With Your Heart movement accomplished to date?

Together, we are making a difference. Each month, tens of thousands of consumers use Shop With Your Heart resources like our brand list to find products that have achieved a meaningful welfare certification or are plant-based. They are asking stores to stock better products, asking farmers critical questions to understand how animals are raised, and consulting with us via the ShopKind Helpline for personalized help finding higher-welfare food.

Meanwhile, we’re assisting food companies across the country—from restaurants and supermarkets to meal-delivery companies and household brands—meet the growing demand for more humane products, drawing on our team’s unique expertise and technical resources.

The ASPCA is also working in cities around the country—alongside health, environment, education and fair labor advocates—to urge public institutions to source higher-welfare and more just, sustainable food, resulting in more than 10 institutional food policies.

Since Shop With Your Heart began in 2016, more than 100 products have become welfare-certified, earning them a spot on our brand list. We’ve worked with over 100 additional companies committed to certifying farm animals’ welfare.

What are the most frequently misunderstood food labels?

One of the biggest offenders is the term “natural.” It’s almost comical how little that word means! “Natural” has nothing to do with where animals are raised, how they are treated or even what they’re fed.

“Cage-free” is another tricky label. The cage-free claim on eggs does mean that the hens who laid them did not spend their entire lives in inhumane wire cages, and that is a good thing. But it doesn’t mean they had any access to the outdoors, or even adequate space or enrichments in that indoor environment. To further complicate things, the term “cage-free” on a package of chicken or turkey meat adds no value because meat birds are never raised in cages. Learn more about other tricky claims on food packages in our label guide.

What makes certain welfare certifications qualify as “meaningful,” while others are not recommended?

A truly meaningful welfare certification has 1) standards high enough to address animals’ physical, emotional and natural needs, and 2) strong oversight in place to ensure participating farms are actually meeting those standards.

Each of the three programs that the ASPCA highlights for consumers (Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved and Global Animal Partnership Steps 2 and above) meet these criteria. They vary in the level of welfare they require, but all have comprehensive, on-farm welfare standards developed by scientists and veterinarians; they ban worst practices, including caging and crowding; all require enriched environments that encourage natural behaviors; and all require independent audits of farms for 100% compliance with standards that are available online for consumer transparency. While other certifications offer some improvements for animals, they fall short by allowing certain unacceptable practices such as caging, or allow for less than 100% compliance with standards. Consumers expect more and animals deserve better.

If you have more questions or are a farm or food business interested in working with the ASPCA, please contact us at [email protected] or join the Factory Farm Detox Facebook group.

Latest News

January 24, 2020
Chowhound: Where to Buy Humane & Organic Chicken Online

January 7, 2020
ASPCA.org: Why the “Humanely Raised” Label You’re Paying for Might Be Meaningless

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