Protesters Create Ruckus at Grand Opening of Canada Goose Store

PETA Says Company Must Stop Using Coyote Fur and Goose Feathers

For Immediate Release:
September 4, 2020

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

Armed with a gigantic “Canada Goose Cruelty Sold Here” banner, protesters descended on the grand opening of the new Canada Goose store inside the Rideau Centre to demand that the company stop using feathers from slaughtered birds and fur from wild coyotes who suffer greatly when caught in steel traps. As one protester told shoppers, “Canada Goose does not represent Canadian values of compassion and kindness!”

The boisterous protest continued until security guards escorted the chanting protesters, who vowed to return for future protests, out of the mall. Video footage and photos are available here.

“Behind every fur-collared and down-filled jacket are gentle geese whose throats were slit and coyotes who fought for their lives while ensnared in traps,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA wants everyone who objects to animal suffering to realize that the last place they should shop is Canada Goose.”

PETA notes that trapped coyotes can succumb to the elements, blood loss, infection, or attacks by predators before trappers return to kill them. Geese and ducks used for down are typically shoved into crates and shipped in all weather extremes to slaughterhouses, where they’re stunned, their throats are cut, and they’re dunked into scalding-hot defeathering tanks.

Following a PETA complaint and a subsequent U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigation, Canada Goose stopped claiming that its standards ensure that its suppliers don’t abuse animals. In February, Forbes reported, “Canada Goose shares fell 42% in the past year as investors grew increasingly concerned about slowing growth, inventory levels and the backlash it has faced over its use of coyote fur.”

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.