PETA is calling off our campaign against POM Wonderful after the company announced that it will permanently end all animal tests. There follows a brief synopsis of our campaign against the juice company in dramatic form. For a longer, less dramatic synopsis of the campaign, click here.

POM Wonderful: Let's damage the arteries of male rabbits and induce them with erectile dysfunction in order to make health claims about our juice.

PETA: Um… WTF?

PAMELA ANDERSON: Considering the cruel experiments on animals that POM is funding, I'm calling on everyone to get Naked instead.

PETA: Meaning, like, Naked Juice, which doesn't test on animals. Frutzzo and Old Orchard are great alternatives too.

REUTERS: Whole Foods Market Inc., the largest natural and organic grocery chain, told Reuters it had decided to stop selling POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and associated tea blends by April 1 if POM continued to fund studies that might include animal testing.

POM: POM Wonderful pomegranate juice has ceased all animal testing.

PETA: Can we have that in writing?

POM: Neither POM Wonderful nor its related entities provide funding for ongoing animal testing on POM Juice (or POM Tea). Moreover, there are no plans to do so in the future.

PETA: Hooray! Thanks.

To tell the truth, the campaign was a little more hard-fought than that, but that's the general idea. This is a major victory, and a huge thank you is also due to everyone who participated in demonstrations, handed out information, contacted POM about this issue, and boycotted POM products. When we win a major campaign at PETA, that often means free vegan pizza for everyone, so fingers crossed that upper management doesn't forget about that small, but important detail in all the excitement.

UPDATE: Victory! POM Promises to End Deadly Animal Tests. Check it.

The recent statement by POM Wonderful's owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick that "POM Wonderful pomegranate juice has ceased all animal testing and we have no plans to do so in the future" seems pretty great, until you read the fine print.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's website, POM made a commitment through June 2007 to an experiment that involves forcing elderly rats to balance on a spinning rod and find a hidden platform in a water maze in order to try not to drown. I'll get back to you on whether those experiments are still going forward, but so far, POM's not getting back to us about it, which is ominous—coming from a company that has professed a desire to get out of the whole sordid animal-testing game. And it's especially ominous when you take into account the fact that POM's president told a PETA rep last summer that his company could deceive the public by declaring itself "cruelty-free," while continuing to test on animals through an affiliate set up by the company's owners.

Why might a company that apparently sees nothing even faintly ridiculous about drowning rats to judge “The Effects of Pomegranate Juice on Cognitive and Motor Deficits in Aging” consider misleading consumers about whether it funds animal tests? My guess is that it has something to do with the fact that Whole Foods threatened to stop selling the juice if POM continued to kill animals in pointless experiments. Whatever the reason, if POM's intention is indeed to mislead customers who are making a good-faith effort to buy cruelty-free products, they can be certain that we're not going to just sit back and watch. PETA's campaign against POM Wonderful will continue until the company signs PETA’s assurance statement pledging an end to all animal tests—something that the company has refused to do so far. Go figure.

You can read PETA VP Bruce Friedrich's letter to POM here.
And for more information and ways to help, click here.

Things just keep getting worse for the folks at POM Wonderful, who (in case you're not up to date on this) can't seem to figure out why performing gruesome experiments on rabbits in order to sell more juice is as ludicrous as it is frightening. This week, right after two stores in California decided to ban sales of POM, the legendary nightclub promoter Steve Lewis sent POM CEO Matt Tupper a letter asking him to stop his animal testing program. If Matt agrees, Steve has made a commitment to use his considerable influence to get POM promoted in nightclubs throughout New York. The New York Post did a piece on the story, which you can read here.

Then, just as all this was happening, PETA's Pom Campaign Coordinator—the lovely Melissa—broke her leg. I admit that sounds like it would be more of a blow to us than it is to POM, but check out what she did with her cast! How do you like them apples, Matt Tupper?

P.S. Stay tuned for details on exactly how Melissa broke her leg. I'm still trying to get the story out of her. All I know at the moment is that it happened on New Year's.

In Other News

The British Medical Journal on Why Animal Testing Sucks

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Predict Your Own Death! (Accuracy Not Guaranteed)

As I may have mentioned before, POM Wonderful has apparently decided that the juice industry is just too damn wholesome. The images of healthy kids and smiling parents guzzling delicious, vitamin-filled beverages are fine and all, but there's just not enough blood for POM's tastes. The company's ingenious solution has been to start doing all sorts of animal tests. Not, like, taste tests, but proper suffocating-mice and slicing-up-live-rabbits kind of tests.

We have found this to be somewhat upsetting. Yesterday, we launched our campaign against POM's animal experiments outside their headquarters in Los Angeles. The pictures and video tell most of the story, but a lovely little side note was when POM's security tried to block the protesters from public view by parking a big truck in front of the demonstration. Except they parked in a red zone, the LAPD got involved, tickets were issued, and everybody except POM thought the whole thing was kind of wonderful. Anyway, moral of the story: Test juice on animals and face the combined wrath of PETA, the LAPD, and a giant rabbit on your doorstep. Nobody wants that.

Up until a couple of months ago, I had never heard of POM Wonderful, but apparently they're this big company that sells pomegranate juice for like three times what any sane person should pay for a beverage that has no known alcoholic effects. If I'm going to pay five bucks for a drink, I want some kind of assurance that I'll be blathering incoherently or trying to breakdance by the time I'm finished with it, but all POM does is turn your mouth red.

Anyway, the reason POM is on my radar all of a sudden (despite the fact that I'm clearly not part of its target market) is that—in a twisted attempt to hide the fact that their juice is just some kind of glorified Grape Drink in a fancy bottle, the fine folks at POM have been asphyxiating mice and torturing rabbits so they can make claims about the juice's health properties.

Pam vs. Pom

Cue Pamela Anderson, who is really pissed off about the whole thing: Pam just put up a statement on her website, encouraging people to boycott POM until the company "enters the 21st century and stops killing animals in these cruel experiments." If you agree with Pam that the world can probably do without giving rabbits erectile dysfunction and then feeding them pomegranate juice to see what happens, click here to let the company know how you feel. Then, next time you feel the urge to blow a paycheck on a bottle of juice, spring for something like Naked Juice, so you can know that your money will simply be used to make more expensive juice, not to kill rabbits.