Fashion retailers including Topshop, Whistles, Hobbes, and Warehouse have made a commitment to stop using goose down in their designs after PETA released video footage showing the inhumane practices involved in obtaining the feathers.
The film shows live geese at a factory in China — where the vast majority of down comes from — being held down while their feathers are ripped out. Clearly in great pain during the plucking, the birds are then left to suffer with horrific open wounds.
Recognizing the positive step taken by Topshop and the other retailers, Yvonne Taylor of PETA said: “Just as they did with cruelly obtained angora wool, forward-thinking fashion brands are jumping to meet the demands of today’s compassionate consumers, who want nothing to do with an industry that rips out live birds’ feathers. PETA will continue to work with retailers across the UK to ditch feathers in favor of natural or high-tech synthetic fillers that are hypoallergenic, warm, eco-friendly, and infinitely kinder to birds.”
PETA’s revelations have to led to questioning of the validity of the Responsible Down Standard (RDS), as the geese farms exposed for cruelty are associated with a number of retailers certified by the RDS, which is intended to ensure no birds are plucked while alive.
Credits
Text Clementine de Pressigny
Photography Yoky via Wikimedia Commons