According to Pacific Business News, the two grocery chains agreed to purchase pork products from other sources in light of a report by the animal rights group World Society for the Protection of Animals, which also lobbied against the passage of a bill that would have allowed the state of Hawaii to purchase a slaughterhouse on Oahu, the group said in a news release.

"Just because something is legal and approved by the appropriate agencies doesn’t necessarily make it right," said Times Supermarket President Bob Stout, in a statement. "We have an obligation as a retailer to do the right thing while servicing our customers. In this case, we are doing precisely that — changing to a more humane method of procuring pork and, at the same time, providing our customers with what they want."

A spokeswoman for Foodland confirmed the Honolulu-based company has changed its pork purchasing and is working with Hormel.