Stockholm Protest Calls For H&M to Ban Down

PETA supporters wearing duck masks and carrying signs gathered outside H&M’s flagship store in Stockholm to demand that the company stop selling items made from the feathers of suffering geese and ducks.

H&M’s Links to Duck Slaughter

The action follows a PETA Asia investigation into Vina Prauden – a Vietnamese company that has previously supplied down to H&M. The footage revealed that ducks’ throats were slit while they were still conscious and that the birds were seen moving for at least one minute afterwards.

H&M provides no information about the farms and slaughterhouses that supply down for its products, relying instead on the Textile Exchange’s demonstrably ineffective and irresponsible Responsible Down Standard to make claims about animal welfare. However, PETA Asia’s footage demonstrates that no matter what standards are in place, the down industry is inherently cruel.

The Down Industry Exposed

At a slaughterhouse that supplied down to Vina Prauden, PETA Asia investigators documented horrific animal abuse. A worker violently grabbed birds, stepped on them to restrain them, and hung them upside down in shackles.

The ducks were dragged through an electrified water bath that paralysed them – but didn’t render them unconscious. A worker then stabbed them in the neck with a knife and left them hanging and bleeding out. The slaughterhouse owner told investigators that her employees never check for signs of consciousness before slaughtering the birds.