Duck Defenders Ruffle H&M’s Feathers at Global Fashion Summit Over Cruel Down Sales

22.05.2024

Copenhagen – As industry leaders and royals such as Queen Mary of Denmark arrived at the Global Fashion Summit at Copenhagen Concert Hall today, they were greeted by a flock of activists with a message for H&M, whose representatives were speakers at the event: “Down Is Bloody Cruel. Drop It!” The action was carried out by supporters of PETA and local animal welfare group Dyrenes Alliance, who demanded that the company stop selling items made from feathers stolen from birds.

Photos from the action are available here.

“H&M’s disgraceful sale of down is fuelling an industry that forces vulnerable birds to spend their entire lives in filth before being violently hacked to pieces,” says PETA Vice President of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA is calling on H&M to cut the cruelty by banning down and sticking to the stylish vegan options its customers already love.”

A PETA Asia investigation into duck farms and slaughterhouses in Vietnam that provide suppliers – including one that listed H&M as a customer – with down marketed as “responsible” revealed ducks suffering from gaping, bloody wounds and languishing in their own waste before being stabbed in the neck while still conscious. Many of the birds were seen still moving for at least a minute after workers slashed their necks and hacked off their feet. H&M has since removed the “responsible” down label from its online offerings in the US – indicating that it knows that the designation is a sham – but it continues to sell down.

PETA entities have released nine exposés of the down industry, each one proving that filth, suffering, and violent deaths are industry norms.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

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