Ascena, Owner of Ann Taylor, Earns Kudos from PETA for Down-Free Brands

For Immediate Release:
May 8, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Ascena Retail Group—owner of Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lane Bryant, and Cacique—has just confirmed to PETA that it doesn’t use down in any of its brands, and for that, PETA has swooped in to thank the company with delicious duck-shaped vegan chocolates.

“Shoppers can flock to Ascena’s stores knowing that the company isn’t ripping out terrified birds’ feathers by the fistful for its popular women’s apparel,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges all companies to follow Ascena’s lead by ditching down and letting ducks and geese keep their feathers.”

PETA exposés have repeatedly shown workers painfully live-plucking ducks and geese for down, leaving them with bloody, gaping wounds, including on farms connected to purportedly “responsible” companies. A recent PETA Asia investigation into a Vietnamese down supplier revealed that ducks’ throats were slit while they were still conscious and that the birds were seen moving for at least one minute afterward. There is also rising concern that the H5N1 virus, which started at a commercial goose farm and has killed more than 58 million wild and captive birds, could lead to the next human pandemic.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.