For Quick Launch:
November 29, 2023
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Gatineau, Québec – PETA has submitted a formal criticism to the federal Competitors Bureau alleging that the “Accountable Down Normal” (RDS) and “Accountable Animal Fiber” (RAF) labels created by third-party certifier Textile Change (TE) are deceptive and deceive shoppers. The criticism follows a number of PETA exposés of the down trade revealing that filth, struggling, and violent deaths are trade norms and might be discovered even on licensed farms.
Canadian retailers equivalent to lululemon, Aritzia, and Arc’teryx boast about their RDS and RAF certifications—which TE created following a number of PETA’s exposés—which inspires prospects to purchase their merchandise beneath the belief that the animals used to supply them had been handled humanely. PETA’s criticism asserts that TE and the businesses that use its labels make advertising claims that deceive prospects, whether or not by design or unintentionally:
- TE claims that its farms meet “strict animal welfare requirements” and that “animals are nicely cared for and by no means handled with cruelty”—but its requirements enable using the “accountable” label on merchandise for weeks after inspectors discover violations. PETA Asia’s current investigation into Vietnamese duck farms and slaughterhouses that offered “accountable” down exhibits geese affected by gaping and bloody wounds, languishing in soiled sheds and much strewn with feces, and being stabbed within the neck and having their ft reduce off whereas nonetheless acutely aware.
- TE claims that its farms are independently audited, however the audits are sometimes preannounced, and beneath its space certification scheme, some farms might by no means be visited by an impartial auditor. PETA Asia’s investigation revealed {that a} farm in Russia that was reportedly RDS-certified didn’t even know that it was and had been failing to stun birds earlier than hacking off their heads with a boring axe.
- TE claims that it tracks the provision chain of its licensed down “from farm to closing product,” but it surely doesn’t require each guardian farm that provides eggs and hatchlings to even be licensed. Father or mother farms subsequently typically live-pluck birds, a painful and traumatic course of—prohibited by TE’s requirements—during which their feathers are torn out whereas they’re acutely aware. This course of is repeated as soon as the feathers develop again and might be inflicted as much as 16 instances earlier than the fowl dies or is slaughtered.
“If shoppers knew that geese had been stabbed and had their ft reduce off whereas nonetheless acutely aware for ‘accountable’ down, they’d by no means purchase these merchandise,” says PETA Director of Company Duty Laura Shields. “PETA is urging the Competitors Bureau to research Textile Change for its misleading advertising scheme and stop it from certifying supplies with deceptive labels.”
PETA’s criticism asks the Competitors Bureau to require TE to take away all deceptive statements from its advertising and challenge corrective explanations that reveal how the animals on its licensed farms are literally handled.
PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals aren’t ours to put on or abuse in some other approach”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For extra details about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please go to PETA.org, take heed to The PETA Podcast, or comply with the group on X (previously Twitter), Fb, or Instagram.