‘Birds’ to Ruffle Urban Outfitters’ Feathers Over Down Industry Exposé
For Immediate Release:
January 17, 2023
Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382
Wearing faux-feather boleros and faux-feather masquerade-style masks, a flock of PETA supporters will swoop down on a local Urban Outfitters store on Thursday to call on the company to stop using down across all its brands, which include Anthropologie and Free People.
When: Thursday, January 19, 12 noon
Where: Urban Outfitters, 841 Lincoln Rd., Miami
The action follows a new video investigation released by PETA Germany showing slaughterhouse workers in the down industry in Poland—the world’s second-largest exporter of down—dragging ducks and geese across grated floors, kicking a duck with full force, and grabbing the animals by their legs or wings. Some birds were evidently conscious and still frantically flapping their wings or even trying to lift their heads after their throats were slit.
“Ducks and geese are sensitive, social, protective animals who don’t deserve to be cruelly mutilated and slaughtered for fashion,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “The down industry’s abuse of birds is universal, and PETA is calling on Urban Outfitters to cut ties with it.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
