Ahead of H&M’s annual meeting, PETA supporters took to the streets along with members of local animal protection groups Animal Save Sweden and Direct Action Everywhere – Stockholm. Equipped with signs, giant duck masks, and costumes, they descended on Karolinska Institutet, demanding that the company stop selling items made from birds’ stolen feathers.
The action follows a PETA exposé into Vina Prauden – a Vietnamese company that has previously supplied down to H&M. The investigative footage revealed that ducks’ throats were slit while they were still conscious and that the birds were seen moving for at least one minute afterwards.
Why is PETA US an H&M Shareholder?
While having shares in a company that sells down may seem odd, this move allowed a PETA US representative to attend the annual meeting, in addition to protesting outside it. The representative delivered a shareholder resolution to H&M Group urging the board of directors to prepare a report on the slaughter methods used to procure down for the company.
The resolution pointed out that H&M depends on the Textile Exchange’s demonstrably ineffective Responsible Down Standard (RDS) to make claims about animal welfare. H&M recently removed the RDS label from its offerings, indicating that it knows the RDS is a sham. The company provides no information about the farms and slaughterhouses that supply down for its products.
Sickening Abuse at ‘Responsible’ Down Standard Farms and Slaughterhouses
At a slaughterhouse that supplied down to Vina Prauden, PETA Asia investigators documented that a worker violently grabbed birds, stepped on them to restrain them, and hung them upside down in shackles. The ducks were dragged through an electrified water bath that paralysed them but didn’t render them unconscious. A worker then stabbed them in the neck with a knife and left them hanging and bleeding out. The slaughterhouse owner told investigators that her employees never check for signs of consciousness before slaughtering the birds.
Support PETA’s Campaign
PETA is urging H&M to put a stop to this cruelty by cutting ties with the down industry and sticking to animal-friendly textiles – that its shoppers already love.
Please join us and send H&M a message now: