Novel Goose-Friendly Marketing Push at RH Annual Meeting
For Immediate Release:
July 14, 2021
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
“Today’s conscientious consumers won’t rest easy on unethical pillows.” That’s the message RH executives will hear from shareholder PETA tomorrow, as it asks the home furnishing giant at its annual meeting to label pillow inserts clearly so as to inform shoppers that down-free pillows are the right choice for anyone who wants to protect the environment, has a feather allergy, or opposes cruelty to animals. As PETA’s investigations have shown, highly sensitive, social, and family-oriented geese and ducks used in the down industry face intensive confinement (factory farming) before they’re slammed into crates and trucked to slaughterhouses in all weather conditions. Then their throats are cut—often while they’re still conscious.
“Choosing luxurious vegan down shields geese from trauma and slaughter and so benefits everyone,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA will remind RH that feather-free filling is an upgrade from cruelly obtained bird feathers, and its marketing should reflect that.”
PETA’s question also highlights the environmental devastation caused by the down industry: Duck and goose farms are a public health hazard, responsible for multiple outbreaks of avian flu and E. coli infections. In addition, the down industry releases toxic chemicals, massive amounts of antibiotics, and fecal waste onto land and into waterways, harming workers, wildlife, and the environment.
PETA first purchased stock in RH and began calling on it to stop selling down in 2013. The company agreed to stop selling mohair after a PETA video exposé revealed cruelty to goats in the mohair industry.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
