Pamela Anderson Joins PETA Protest of Toronto Film Fest’s Canada Goose Sponsorship

Honorary PETA Director Calls On Festival to Reject Brand’s Fur-and-Feather Blood Money

For Immediate Release:
September 4, 2019

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Canadian Pamela Anderson—who’s just moved back to her home country—has sent a letter to Toronto International Film Festival Artistic Director and Co-Head Cameron Bailey urging him to sever ties with Canada Goose, which has sponsored the festival for years.

“Canada Goose’s ‘standards’ allow for coyotes to suffer for days in steel traps with a broken or bleeding leg before the trapper returns to shoot or bludgeon them to death, and the company’s jackets are stuffed with the down feathers of birds who died violently,” writes Anderson. “I urge you to make this year the last one in which you have Canada Goose as a sponsor, just as the Berlin International Film Festival cut ties with the company in 2017.”

Tomorrow, during opening-night events, protesters will also flank the red carpet armed with posters emblazoned with a spoof Canada Goose logo and images of the company’s cruelty to geese and coyotes. And throughout the festival, PETA’s mobile billboard—showing a goose’s or a coyote’s face next to the words “I Want You to Change. Don’t Buy Down: Boycott Canada Goose” or “I Want You to Change. Don’t Buy Fur: Boycott Canada Goose”—will circle the TIFF Bell Lightbox building.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

Anderson’s letter to Bailey follows.

Cameron Bailey

Artistic Director & Co-Head

TIFF

Dear Mr. Bailey,

As a proud Canadian who has been active with PETA since my days on Baywatch, I’m saddened to learn that TIFF continues to partner with Canada Goose, which sells real fur and down. I admire TIFF’s dedication to promoting gender equality in the film industry with the “Share Her Journey” initiative, and I hope you’ll take another progressive step to end injustice by refusing Canada Goose’s blood money.

Canada Goose’s “standards” allow for coyotes to suffer for days in steel traps with a broken or bleeding leg before the trapper returns to shoot or bludgeon them to death, and the company’s jackets are stuffed with the down feathers of birds who died violently. In the down industry, birds end up at the slaughterhouse, where they’re immobilized, their throats are slit, and their bodies are scalded in defeathering tanks. Canada Goose recently removed some misleading claims of “ethical” sourcing from its website following a PETA complaint to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the agency’s subsequent investigation.

So many innovative vegan materials can be used instead, and now, hundreds of fashion companies—including Chanel, Gucci, Michael Kors, The North Face, and Versace—keep fur out of their lines. But instead of making the switch, Canada Goose is seemingly trying to hide exactly how coyotes and birds are killed for its products.

TIFF has rightfully taken its place in world cinema and can afford to be selective in its sponsorships. I urge you to make this year the last one in which you have Canada Goose as a sponsor, just as the Berlin International Film Festival cut ties with the company in 2017.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Pamela Anderson