PETA Calls On Marriott to Stop Offering Down Bedding

Group Plans to Ruffle Company’s Feathers at Annual Meeting by Exposing Cruelty to Birds

For Immediate Release:
May 9, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Washington — Marriott International’s 2013 annual meeting will include a statement and question from a representative of PETA, which owns stock in the company, calling on Marriott to stop offering down bedding. In the statement, PETA points out that ripping the feathers out of the bodies of live birds causes them extreme pain and that the birds who are plucked after they are killed spent their entire lives in crowded, filthy conditions on factory farms and experienced grueling journeys to the slaughterhouse, where they had their throats cut or were scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

When:   Friday, May 10, 10:30 a.m.

Where:  JW Marriott Hotel, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington

“Birds experience excruciating pain and severe trauma when their feathers are ripped from their bodies for down,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “As stockholders, we’ll be able to take our case to end these abuses of birds directly to the people who own Marriott—namely, other shareholders.”

In order to obtain down, birds are often forcefully held down by workers who rip out their feathers. Afterward, the birds lie on the floor, bleeding and paralyzed with fear. Many are seriously injured, and some die from shock or infected wounds. Alicia Silverstone narrates PETA’s compelling undercover video exposé of down production. The down industry also supports the notoriously cruel foie gras industry. On foie gras farms, the livers of force-fed birds become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Foie gras producers boost their profits by selling the feathers from these force-fed birds.

PETA encourages shoppers who are looking for bedding for their own homes to check labels for synthetic down, polyester fill, or high-tech fabrics such as PrimaLoft® and Thinsulate™—soft, washable, down-like fibers.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.