Taking It to the Boardroom: PETA Urges Restoration Hardware to Ditch Down

There’s no reason to continue selling down inserts for decorative pillow covers: That’s the message that PETA, as a Restoration Hardware shareholder, took to the upscale furniture retailer’s annual meeting on Tuesday. A PETA representative urged the California-based company to commit to offering only its luxurious down-free option—described as the “lightest, loftiest and most natural-feeling” material of its kind—for its pillow inserts for decorative pillows and to eliminate the cruelly produced feather-filled ones.

What would be a simple step for Restoration Hardware is a life-or-death matter for birds, many of whom are scalded to death in defeathering tanks for down. PETA urges the company to commit to using only down-free materials so that compassionate customers can rest easy knowing that their homes are both stylish and cruelty-free.

Birds used for down are often restrained while workers yank out fistfuls of their feathers. A PETA exposé of the down industry in China documented that workers left sick and injured chicks, geese, and ducks to die slowly. Dead birds were found decaying in crates and ponds or tossed outside like trash.

Modern, innovative down-free options are widely available—including at Restoration Hardware, which already offers Luxury MicroMax Down-Alternative as an option to fill its decorative pillows. Today’s animal-free materials come in plush, environmentally friendly options and are often made with recycled materials.

What You Can Do

Restoration Hardware describes its own down alternative as “[c]rafted using the finest select materials” and offering “a plush softness and comfort.” Click the button below to urge the retailer to take a compassionate stance for geese by agreeing to stop selling down.