PETA Urges the NBA to Drop Canada Goose Partnership

For Immediate Release:
March 5, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After Canada Goose announced a multiyear partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the annual All-Star Game, which is already at the center of controversy for being held during the pandemic, PETA fired off a letter today to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, urging him to reconsider this partnership with the notoriously cruel fur- and feather-peddling retailer.

“No league should welcome a partnership with a company whose name is synonymous with cruelty,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges the NBA not to team up with an overpriced all-star animal abuse supporter like Canada Goose and instead score a partnership with a modern vegan outerwear company.”

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

PETA’s letter to Silver follows.

March 5, 2021

Adam Silver

Commissioner

National Basketball Association

Dear Mr. Silver:

Considering all the controversy already surrounding the NBA’s decision to hold its All-Star Game this weekend in Atlanta despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19, we were surprised to learn that the league is now announcing a new partnership with Canada Goose. In the middle of a devastating pandemic during which record numbers of Americans have lost their jobs and even their homes, it makes the NBA appear even more tone deaf to be hawking overpriced outerwear (which mostly only the players and team owners can afford) from an infamously cruel company with an international campaign against it. I urge you to prove to your fan base that you prioritize their interests over money by replacing Canada Goose as an outerwear partner of the annual NBA All-Star Game.

Perhaps you are unaware that aside from its exorbitant price tags, Canada Goose is well known for humane washing its coats while continuing to support the slaughter of coyotes and birds for fur and down. Coyotes can suffer in traps indefinitely from broken bones and bleeding wounds before hunters kill them for their fur. If trappers don’t bludgeon, shoot, or kill them in some other horrific way, they can also die from blood loss, shock, dehydration, frostbite, gangrene, or attacks by predators. At slaughterhouses everywhere, it’s standard practice to hang ducks and geese exploited for their feathers upside down, stun them, and slit their throats. Canada Goose attempts to convince caring consumers that they’re buying compassionately produced goods, but no matter what a supplier’s standards are, no animal wants to be killed for their skin.

If the NBA promotes Canada Goose, it will send a message to your millions of fans that you support the cruel fur and down industries. Many ethical vegan businesses would better represent the NBA and its fans across the country.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman

Executive Vice President