Duck Defenders Ruffle H&M’s Feathers at Shoptalk Europe Over Cruel Down Sales

03.06.2024

Barcelona – Retail industry insiders arriving at the Shoptalk Europe event at Fira Gran Via today were greeted by a flock of giant “ducks” and “geese” with a message for H&M, a representative of which was speaking at the event: “Down Is Bloody Cruel. Drop It!” The action was carried out by supporters of PETA and local animal welfare group Barcelona Animal Save, who demanded that the company stop selling items made from feathers stolen from birds.

Photos and videos from the action are available here.

“H&M claims to care about animals while propping up an industry that forces ducks and geese to live in filth before they’re crudely slaughtered,” says PETA Vice President of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA is calling on the company to be true to its word and stick to vegan fashion only.”

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” found 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. 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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