‘Dead Ducks’ to Ruffle King Street H&M’s Feathers Over Cruel Down Sales

For Immediate Release:
December 18, 2023

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Holiday shoppers will be met with a disturbing sight on Wednesday outside the H&M store on King Street: fake dead ducks hung by their feet on a clothing rack alongside a row of “bloody” jackets. The action comes courtesy of PETA, whose supporters will call out H&M’s use of cruelly produced down and urge passersby to shop only for feather-free products.

When:    Wednesday, December 20, 12 noon

Where:    Outside H&M, 281 King St., Charleston

A PETA Asia investigation into Vietnamese duck farms and slaughterhouses—which provide suppliers, including one that listed H&M as a customer, with purportedly “responsible” down—shows ducks suffering from gaping and bloody wounds inside dirty sheds and on lots strewn with feces being stabbed in the neck while still conscious. Many of the birds continued to move for more than a minute after workers slashed their necks and cut off their feet. As a result, H&M has removed the “responsible” down label from its online offerings in the U.S.—indicating that it knows the designation is a sham—but it continues to sell down.

PETA has released nine exposés of the down industry, each one proving that filth, suffering, and violent deaths are industry norms.

“Every down item is stuffed with the pain and suffering of terrified birds who died in agony,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on H&M to help end this cruelty by banning down and urges holiday shoppers to extend peace on Earth to all animals by sticking to feather-free, vegan materials.”

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 X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.