As you read this, geese and ducks are suffering as workers immobilise the panicked birds and tear out their feathers by the handful. Despite any false assurances a brand might tout, the global down industry is built on tormenting these animals – whose skin is often torn open from such rough handling – and workers have been filmed crudely sewing up the bloody wounds with a needle and thread.
It’s impossible to avoid misery when buying down because the industry is rife with mislabelling.
Companies making claims of humane practices may state the feathers in their down products came from birds who were plucked after they were killed, but even that can’t be guaranteed. Laws and certifications intended to prevent live plucking are easily circumvented, and no third-party organisation has the authority to monitor or sanction abusive facilities. Feathers from live-plucked birds can even be mixed in with other feathers, making it impossible to say how they were obtained.
Live-plucked or not, every feather in an item of down-filled outerwear or bedding will come from a bird destined to be violently killed.
Ducks and geese are kept in abysmal conditions before being carelessly shoved into cages on slaughterhouse-bound trucks. Many birds will sustain broken bones from rough handling and their limbs can get trapped between the wire cages, which are stacked on one another. This makes it impossible for these naturally fastidiously clean birds to avoid becoming covered in the faeces of all the birds above them. They’ll be transported in these conditions – in all weather extremes –sometimes for hundreds of kilometres.
Upon arrival at the slaughterhouse, the terrified birds are hung upside down on a conveyor belt and moved towards a spinning blade that cuts their throats. After this, their feathers are mechanically torn from their skin and used to make jackets, pillows, sleeping bags, and other items that could have just been made from a down alternative.
When it comes to using animals for clothing, cruelty is not unique to the down industry.
Countless animals also suffer immensely to produce fur, leather, wool, and silk for clothing. On fur farms, minks and foxes are confined to filthy wire cages, and wild animals like raccoons and coyotes are often painfully caught in traps before they’re crudely killed. Leather production often involves cows sent on gruelling trips to slaughterhouses, where they’re sometimes skinned alive. Lambs condemned to be used for wool endure castration, tail docking, and the skin and flesh being cut from their backsides without anaesthetic. Leather made from the skin of crocodiles, alligators, ostriches, and snakes and used in designer goods comes from animals confined to filthy enclosures and often skinned alive. And silk production involves boiling caterpillars alive in their cocoons.
No matter the material or marketing claims, animals exploited for clothing are tormented and killed.
Together, we can stop the exploitation of animals for their skin and feathers.
If you’ve not already donated, please contribute to help spare ducks and geese the torment of the vile down industry:
I Want to Help Protect Gentle Birds From Being Abused for Down
