Down jackets come with cruel price for animals
By Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Salon
Now that the weather has turned cold, down is having its fashion moment. Every other person seems to be wearing the kind of brightly colored jackets once the province of serious climbers and hikers.
I grew up in the snow-swept tundras of northern Minnesota and am well-acquainted with down’s unparalleled warmth for clothes and bedding. The trouble with it then was finding a way to stuff it so that you didn’t look like the Michelin Man. With new ways of sewing down into smaller tubular shapes (“baffles” as they are called), fashionable silhouettes are possible. And even after a brief flirtation with Thinsulate, hardcore companies that equip climbers for the real outdoors, like REI and North Face, always come back to down.
What is down? “Down” generally refers to goose down (it is also sourced, but much less frequently, from ducks). It is the soft layer of tiny feathers closest to the bird’s body. A single piece of down is called a “plumule,” basically a multidirectional puff. These plumules interlock and trap tiny pockets of air — it’s actually this layer of air that keeps the cold out and the warmth in. Down provides about three times more warmth per ounce than synthetics; that is, it’s warmer and lighter and doesn’t mat down over time as synthetics will do.
Even if you are careful to buy only free-range eggs and non-factory farmed meat products, you might be shocked to learn that your comfy and fashionable down may have come at the price of an animal’s suffering.
Down is often collected through a procedure called live plucking. Which is pretty much what it sounds like: A worker restrains the bird and rips out feathers by the handfuls, especially from the goose’s underbelly but sometimes also from the back. Often, pieces of skin come off as well, the birds scream in terror and struggle to get away. Sometimes they die from the trauma. Just Google “down cruelty” and you’ll find plenty of pictures of miserable, bald and dying geese straight from my nightmare. Animal rights groups contend that this practice encompasses 50-80 percent of all down.
What is the problem? Man has the right and power the slaughter, kill, abuse, mistreat, torture any creature it so chooses including himself.
How do you like dem (sic) apples?
What would be the reason for plucking alive? Do the feathers maintain a better loft if taken off a live animal, or have some other superior quality? I question these kind of statements if they have no obvious rational, it’s goal seems to be: shock, as if killing an animal for it’s products is not enough, we need to add some gore to it.
yay Patagonia
It’s funny when they make light of one thing and leave everything else in the dark. Look up ugg boots if you want to see some real bad treatment. Skin and fur all in one. Turned inside out and ready for your feet.
I did just look it up… You are safe if you buy from IKEA, Patagonia or from the US or Canada (where live plucking is illegal).
I read about this treatment years ago and have been telling friends to never buy down again.
It’s horrible but saves the manufacturers time & money ~ that’s the bottom line. That’s always the bottom line.
Kill em, pluck em, eat em. Full circle. I love the taste of goose.
worldcycle,
Do you believe that some Gawd created humans as the only sentient beings on this planet?
Some 70 percent of the world’s supply comes from China, typically from birds killed for their meat. Most of the rest comes from Europe and Canada, from birds harvested for meat or pate. Eider down is collected from nests without harming the nestlings or the parents. Some down is still collected by gathering it from the pens after it has been naturally lost.
Did I mention that one of my jackets has a real fur collar? Unlike synthetics, it won’t freeze to my skin if it gets wet.