Animal Equality Resolves Lawsuit Over Pet Food Brand’s Marketing of ‘Wild Caught’ Versus ‘Farmed’ Fish

As part of the resolution, Champion Petfoods corrected the 'wild-caught' marketing claims and agreed to provide more transparency regarding its fish sourcing.

January 11, 2021 Updated: August 20, 2023

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On Monday, Animal Equality and Champion Petfoods announced they had resolved certain legal claims, filed by Animal Equality earlier this year in D.C. Superior Court, related to the pet food company’s marketing of the rainbow trout in its products.

THE LAWSUIT: In July 2020, Animal Equality filed a lawsuit alleging that Champion Petfoods used the phrase ‘wild-caught’ to market some of its Acana brand products that contain farm-raised trout.

THE OUTCOME: Champion Petfoods has corrected ‘wild-caught’ marketing claims on its website and, as a part of a resolution with Animal Equality, has agreed to provide additional transparency regarding its fish sourcing practices. Champion also agreed to partner with an animal welfare consultant to provide additional animal welfare education to employees.

MORE TRANSPARENCY: Animal Equality and Champion Petfoods issued a joint statement announcing the resolution, in which they expressed they “are pleased to have reached this resolution, which they believe will help bring even more clarity to the sourcing and labeling of pet food products.”

WHAT’S WRONG WITH FISH FARMING: Most of the fish eaten today are raised on aquafarms where they’ll spend their lives (up to two years) confined in tightly packed spaces. Not only does aquafarming create massive amounts of waste and psychological suffering for the animals, it also contributes to more industrial fishing. This is because many of the fish raised on these farms are carnivores, meaning they need to eat smaller fish to live. Most of the smaller fish who are turned into feed for aquafarms are caught in the wild.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Regardless of what you feed your companion animal, the best thing you can do to help both animals and the environment is to leave fish and other meat out of your own diet.

FIGHT MISLEADING MARKETING: You can help our legal team take on misleading welfare marketing claims! If you spot language, images, or other marketing claims promoting an animal-derived product that seem too good to be true, let us know! Take a photo of the product and fill out our form.

REPORT MISLEADING WELFARE CLAIMS