Whole Foods May Pull POM Wonderful Juice off Their Shelves by April Unless Company Stops Testing on Animals

I’m hoping this will be verified by Whole Foods soon. If so, a great move and it will help.

Here's a quick summary of what kind of animal testing POM Wonderful has engaged in. As you'll see, these tests are beyond cruel and totally unnecessary:

"POM has funded experiments in which mother mice were fed POM juice and their week-old babies were locked in a chamber with no oxygen for 45 minutes, causing severe brain damage. The organization says another experiment involved the severing of rabbits' arteries in order to cause impotence, with the rabbits then being fed POM juice to test impotence."
http://geari.blogspot.com/2007/01/
restaurant-in-california-pulls-pom.html

Article:

Whole Foods Market to Pull POM Wonderful Products Off Shelves

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/01/16/18347665.php

Tuesday Jan 16th, 2007 7:00 PM

Unnecessary Animal Cruelty Cited as Reason for Compassionate Decision

LOS ANGELES - In correspondence with a local animal activist yesterday, Whole Foods Market Customer Communications Specialist Jessie Walker said that Whole Foods would pull POM Wonderful products off their shelves nationwide April first unless the company stopped testing on animals. Animal rights activists applauded the move by the progressive grocer.

After being exposed last year as funding cruel and unnecessary animal experiments, in which baby mice were deprived of oxygen and rabbits had their penile arteries severed, POM has seen legal demonstrations at the homes of its executives in Los Angeles as well as a recent claim alleging product tampering on the East Coast, where an anonymous communique stated that 487 bottles of POM juice had been tainted with a gastrointestinal irritant.

In addition, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau has recommended POM Wonderful discontinue its "puffery" and hyperbolic health claims regarding its pomegranate juice. NAD Director Andrea Levine reported that the claims were the strongest she'd ever seen for a food product, yet POM continues to make outrageous claims that its juice benefits cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease.

As detailed in a company press release last month, POM vice-president Fiona Possell resigned her position as company spokesperson, acknowledging animal rights activists as the reason for her resignation.