Fair Use Prevails: Twitter Sides With PETA, Re-Uploads Canada Goose Parody Video
‘Knitwear in Reverse’ Video Previously Removed in Response to Copyright Complaint Restored to Social Networking Site
For Immediate Release:
June 28, 2018
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Nearly a year after pulling PETA’s “Canada Goose Knitwear in Reverse (the Whole Story)” video—which parodies the company’s original tale describing how its sweaters are made while conveniently leaving out how sheep are beaten and bloodied for wool—Twitter has restored it to its site after ruling that it doesn’t constitute copyright infringement. The clip was originally pulled last August in response to a complaint from React, an “anti-counterfeiting” group that Canada Goose belongs to.
“From beaten sheep to trapped coyotes and suffocated geese, Canada Goose is putting cruelty to animals in every stitch of its sweaters and jackets,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s parody video urges shoppers not to be swayed by the company’s deceptive storytelling and to remember who wool comes from—gentle sheep who are kicked and cut open in shearing sheds and slaughterhouses.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—has released seven exposés recorded at 44 wool-producing facilities on three continents, and all have revealed that sheep are mutilated, abused, and skinned alive in the international wool industry. Shearers are typically paid by volume, not by the hour, which encourages fast, violent work. The wool industry also produces massive amounts of methane, erodes soil, and contaminates waterways.
In addition to using wool for its knitwear, Canada Goose uses fur from trapped coyotes—who may succumb to the elements, blood loss, infection, or predators before trappers find them and stomp on or bludgeon them—and down from geese. A PETA video exposé revealed that workers at a down supplier for the company rounded up terrified geese who piled on top of one another in an attempt to escape, causing suffocation and death.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
