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For Rapid Launch:
December 1, 2023
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Vancouver – Trade commerce group Textile Trade (TE)—whose certifications are utilized by domestically headquartered manufacturers Aritzia, lululemon, and Arc’teryx—is the topic of a formal PETA grievance to the federal Competitors Bureau alleging that TE’s “Accountable Down Normal” (RDS) and “Accountable Animal Fiber” (RAF) labels are deceptive and deceive shoppers. The grievance follows a number of PETA exposés of the down business revealing that filth, struggling, and violent deaths are business norms and happen even on licensed farms.
Aritzia, lululemon, and Arc’teryx all boast about their RDS and RAF certifications—which TE created following a number of PETA’s exposés—encouraging prospects to purchase their merchandise below the idea that the animals used to provide them had been handled humanely. PETA’s grievance asserts that TE and the businesses that use its labels make advertising and marketing 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 use of the “accountable” label on merchandise for weeks after inspectors discover violations. PETA Asia’s current investigation into Vietnamese duck farms and slaughterhouses that bought “accountable” down reveals geese affected by gaping and bloody wounds, languishing in soiled sheds and on heaps strewn with feces, and being stabbed within the neck and their ft being minimize off whereas nonetheless acutely aware.
- TE claims that its farms are independently audited, however the audits are sometimes preannounced, and below its space certification scheme, some farms could 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,” nevertheless it doesn’t require each father or mother farm that provides eggs and hatchlings to even be licensed. Mum or dad farms due to this fact usually live-pluck birds, a painful and traumatic course of—prohibited by TE’s requirements—by which their feathers are torn out whereas they’re acutely aware. This course of is repeated as soon as the feathers develop again and will be inflicted as much as 16 instances earlier than the chicken dies or is slaughtered.
“If shoppers knew that geese had been stabbed and their ft had been minimize off whereas nonetheless acutely aware for ‘accountable’ down, they’d by no means purchase these merchandise,” says PETA Director of Company Accountability Laura Shields. “PETA is urging the Competitors Bureau to analyze Textile Trade’s misleading advertising and marketing scheme that misleads well-intentioned buyers at retailers like lululemon, Aritzia, and Arc’teryx.”
PETA’s grievance asks the Competitors Bureau to require TE to take away all deceptive statements from its advertising and marketing and problem corrective explanations that reveal how the animals on its licensed farms are literally handled.
PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals are usually not ours to put on or abuse in another means”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For extra data on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please go to PETA.org, take heed to The PETA Podcast, or observe the group on X (previously Twitter), Fb, or Instagram.
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