H&M Bans New Down Feathers Following PETA Campaign
04.10.2024
Stockholm – H&M – the second-largest clothing retailer in the world – has committed to no longer sourcing any new down for any of its brands worldwide, a move that will help spare countless ducks and geese a lifetime of misery and an agonising death. The announcement comes after dozens of demonstrations by PETA entities at H&M stores around the world, an appeal from Joaquin Phoenix, shareholder resolutions, and letters from more than 150,000 supporters of PETA entities.
In a move toward eradicating the use of all down, no matter the source, H&M is transitioning to sourcing only synthetic or post-consumer recycled down for its jackets and home goods by the end of 2025 or sooner as the process takes flight.
“H&M’s compassionate decision is a big win for ducks and geese,” says PETA Vice President of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA celebrates this forward-thinking move and urges retailers everywhere to follow suit and stop profiting from the cruel feather industry.”
In the down industry, highly sensitive, social, and family-oriented ducks and geese are forced to spend their entire lives in filthy sheds or on barren, faeces-strewn lots. At slaughterhouses, many of the birds are inadequately stunned before their throats are cut, so they’re often still conscious when they’re dumped into de-feathering tanks of scalding-hot water.
Prior to the campaign, PETA US collaborated with H&M to create the Co-exist Story, a vegan collection featuring FLWRDWN – a down alternative made from wildflowers – and other sustainably sourced materials, including Vegea, a leather made from grape skin, and ECONYL, a regenerated nylon created from waste like fishing nets and fabric scraps.
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 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
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