Letter to the Editor: Downsize Your Down

Misrepresentation in labeling rears its ugly head again.

As cooler weather approaches, we began thinking about warm coats and jackets and soft, snuggly quilts and duvets. Nothing says warmth better than goose down. But at what cost to the animals that suffer, that the down is there for the stuffing?

Eighty percent of the world’s down is obtained in China, where the down is literally ripped out of the live animal’s skin, leaving the goose bleeding and in pain. After the bird has time to heal and new down grows, he/she endures the same misery time and again, several times over, before finally being slaughtered for the Chinese marketplace.

Retailers of down clothing and bedding companies such as Hollander Sleep Products, Eddie Bauer and Lands’ End claim a “non live-plucked products guarantee.” The down is labeled RDA – Responsible Down Standard. These claims aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. The purveyors of goose down realize that the majority of Americans will not buy a product that causes undue suffering to animals, so, as one industry representative admitted, “We advertised that it’s all plucked after slaughter. Nobody dares to buy if you say it’s live plucked.”

The companies that you, the consumer, purchase your down products from are not the bad guys here. They are being lied to by the down suppliers. The surest way to release geese from the horrors of live plucking is to simply not buy down goose products. I stated earlier that nothing says warmth better than goose down, but that is not entirely true. There are new products on the market that are every bit as warm and protective as down, if not as soft and snuggly. Opt for those, won’t you? Takes a lot of suffering birds to stuff even one jacket, not to mention a king-size duvet.

Thanks for doing the right thing.

Sharon Thill

Sturgeon Bay, Wis.