The Responsible Down Standard (RDS) – a certification programme for down suppliers – attempts to assure consumers that the birds are treated in a “responsible” way, but as this PETA Asia undercover video footage shows, these “standards” are failing to protect birds.
PETA Asia investigated RDS-certified goose farms in Russia – which exports down to countries around the world – revealing that geese were beheaded with a dull axe while they were fully conscious.
Watch the footage to see what happens to geese who are slaughtered for “responsible” down. Then take action to help stop this violence:
Take ActionConscious Geese Beheaded – Birds Continue to Move While Bleeding Out
PETA Asia visited eight farms in Russia, including in the Novosibirsk region. Although the RDS stipulates that “waterfowl shall be stunned then killed before they can regain consciousness”, geese at one farm didn’t receive any pain relief and were not stunned before their necks were stretched across a stump and repeatedly hacked at with an axe.
A worker is heard laughing after decapitating a goose with five blows and tossing the body into the snow. Another goose shrieks in terror while being struck seven times. Birds’ wings and feet can be seen twitching for more than five minutes afterward.
According to Dr Heather Rally, a PETA US veterinarian who reviewed the footage, “[The geese] undoubtedly suffered tremendous pain while being suspended and restrained by the wings and having their necks mutilated with several blows from an axe that apparently was dull.”
RDS Lacks Transparency – Audits Fail to Protect Birds
PETA Asia’s investigators were taken to the farm where the slaughter was documented by a representative of a Russian company that produces up to 44,000 pounds of down every month. The investigators were told that down bought from the Novosibirsk region is RDS-certified. This was news to the farmer, who, despite claims from the company representative, said her farm is not certified. However, because her farm falls within the certified region, the company representative confirmed that the down from the geese seen in this footage would still be sold as Responsible Down Standard–certified.
The RDS claims to follow the production of down from “farm to product”, but the representative said that auditors don’t ask farmers how the geese are raised. If the auditors are locals, “They don’t even have to ask,” he said. “They know how the birds are kept.” The RDS certification procedures allow entire “farm areas” to be certified by auditing just a sample of a given area. That means that RDS administrators may not know what’s taking place on most farms when certifying entire regions.
The Down Industry Has a History of Abuse
This is not the first time that PETA has exposed the down industry’s cruelty. In 2012, PETA US released footage of workers tearing out live geese’s feathers, a process known as “live plucking”. In the years that followed, companies faced a loss of confidence by consumers, so they came up with international standards claiming to ensure “responsible”, “non live-plucked” down.
But when PETA US and PETA Asia went inside farms connected to these certified and “responsible” companies, they uncovered shocking cruelty that cast significant doubt on down standards. Investigators spoke with suppliers to these supposed “responsible” and “non live-pluck” companies, and they admitted to buying and selling live-plucked down. One buyer even bragged about misleading customers, and an industry representative remarked, “We advertised that it’s all plucked after slaughter – nobody dares to buy it if you say it’s live-plucked.” Their solution? Mislabel their live-plucked down as “non live-plucked” so that people will buy it.
See the Individual Goose
Geese are loyal and protective, they mate for life, and they refuse to leave the side of a sick or injured mate or chick, even if winter is approaching and the rest of the flock is flying south. When a goose’s mate dies, the surviving goose mourns in seclusion – some spend the rest of their lives as widows or widowers, refusing to mate again.
Take Action
Athletic apparel company lululemon refuses to acknowledge how geese die for its down jackets and continues to hide behind the meaningless Responsible Down Standard (RDS) and the claim that the birds used for its down jackets are treated “humanely and with respect”.
Every down-filled jacket in lululemon’s stock represents the pain and fear of gentle birds who didn’t want to die. Please join PETA in calling on lululemon to stop selling down, which is always a product of cruelty.
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