Can initiatives like this have unintended consequences, such as short-changing the ethical development of the very people who are being targeted as customers by Whole Foods because of their concern for animals? Did this letter, which was displayed at the cash registers at Whole Foods and made available to the media as part of a Whole Foods public relations campaign, contribute to a misleading and falsely reassuring message about what animals actually go through in order to satisfy buyers' appetites for their flesh and by-products?

Regardless of their good intentions, if participating animal advocates end up helping make the use and killing of animals both more acceptable and more profitable, are they at risk of engaging in a conflict of interest?

A glance at some of the details of these "animal compassionate" standards highlights the irony of idealistic organizations collaborating with a large corporation that derives significant profits from selling animal products.

From the Whole Foods Market Natural Meat Program and Animal Compassionate Standards for Pigs: "If an illness or injury is serious enough for the animal to be killed, the animal must be promptly and humanely euthanized on the farm. Although at this time there are few alternatives to blunt trauma for piglets, there is research being conducted to develop more humane euthanasia possibilities for neonates."

In the real world of animal agribusiness, which is ultimately governed by the laws of economics, this language could be translated roughly as follows: "If an animal gets sick, and treating them will cost more than their cash value, we will kill them in the nicest way we can, as long as it doesn't cost too much. In the case of baby pigs, this means bashing them in the head with a blunt instrument. But we're looking for a nicer way to do it."

Now, more than three years after publication of the Whole Foods letter, not even one of the "animal compassionate" standards has been put in place in the US. Yet Whole Foods has reaped all the benefits from a widespread public perception that it is "animal-friendly." This raises even more questions about why so many organizations would lend the power of their good names to a corporation that had done little more than express an intention to make things somewhat better for the animals used and killed for its profits.

To learn more about the politics of the Whole Food's letter, read Compassion for Sale? Doublethink Meets Doublefeel as Happy Meat Comes of Age

"In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place."

-- Gandhi