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November 29, 2023
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Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Gatineau, Québec – PETA has submitted a formal criticism to the federal Pageant Bureau alleging that the “Accountable Down Same old” (RDS) and “Accountable Animal Fiber” (RAF) labels created via third-party certifier Textile Change (TE) are deceptive and lie to shoppers. The criticism follows more than one PETA exposés of the down trade revealing that dust, struggling, and violent deaths are trade norms and will also be discovered even on licensed farms.
Canadian shops comparable to lululemon, Aritzia, and Arc’teryx boast about their RDS and RAF certifications—which TE created following more than one PETA’s exposés—which inspires shoppers to shop for their merchandise below the belief that the animals used to provide them had been handled humanely. PETA’s criticism asserts that TE and the corporations that use its labels make advertising and marketing claims that lie to shoppers, whether or not via design or accidentally:
- TE claims that its farms meet “strict animal welfare requirements” and that “animals are neatly cared for and not handled with cruelty”—but its requirements permit using the “accountable” label on merchandise for weeks after inspectors in finding violations. PETA Asia’s contemporary investigation into Vietnamese duck farms and slaughterhouses that bought “accountable” down presentations geese affected by gaping and bloody wounds, languishing in grimy sheds and quite a bit strewn with feces, and being stabbed within the neck and having their toes bring to an end whilst nonetheless mindful.
- TE claims that its farms are independently audited, however the audits are most often preannounced, and below its space certification scheme, some farms would possibly by no means be visited via an impartial auditor. PETA Asia’s investigation published {that a} farm in Russia that used to be reportedly RDS-certified didn’t even know that it used to be and have been failing to stun birds prior to hacking off their heads with a lifeless awl.
- TE claims that it tracks the availability chain of its licensed down “from farm to ultimate product,” but it surely doesn’t require each father or mother farm that provides eggs and hatchlings to also be licensed. Mother or father farms subsequently regularly live-pluck birds, a painful and tense procedure—prohibited via TE’s requirements—through which their feathers are torn out whilst they’re mindful. This procedure is repeated as soon as the feathers develop again and will also be inflicted as much as 16 instances prior to the chicken dies or is slaughtered.
“If shoppers knew that geese had been stabbed and had their toes bring to an end whilst nonetheless mindful for ‘accountable’ down, they’d by no means purchase those merchandise,” says PETA Director of Company Accountability Laura Shields. “PETA is urging the Pageant Bureau to research Textile Change for its misleading advertising and marketing scheme and save you it from certifying fabrics with deceptive labels.”
PETA’s criticism asks the Pageant Bureau to require TE to take away all deceptive statements from its advertising and marketing and factor corrective explanations that divulge how the animals on its licensed farms are in reality handled.
PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals don’t seem to be ours to put on or abuse in some other means”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more info about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please talk over with PETA.org, pay attention to The PETA Podcast, or apply the gang on X (previously Twitter), Fb, or Instagram.