KÜHL Pulls ‘Ethically Sourced’ Labels From Down Items After PETA Appeal

Outerwear Company Removes Misleading Marketing

For Immediate Release:
February 27, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

After learning from PETA about the cruelty inherent in the down industry—in which birds’ throats are slit or animals are scalded to death in defeathering tanks, often while still conscious—outerwear company KÜHL has pledged to remove all references to “ethically sourced” and “ethical” down from its website and product hangtags. Despite taking this important step toward doing away with misleading labels, the company continues to sell items made with goose feathers.

“The only truly humane label is ‘vegan,’ so KÜHL did the right thing in agreeing not to mislead well-intentioned consumers with spurious claims of ‘ethical down,’” says PETA Director of Corporate Affairs Anne Brainard. “PETA will keep encouraging KÜHL and all other companies to ditch down altogether and embrace the many modern down alternatives on the market instead.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—notes that birds used for down often spend their entire lives in crowded, filthy conditions and are denied everything that’s natural and important to them. A PETA exposé of the down industry in China documented that workers left sick and injured chicks, geese, and ducks to die slowly. Dead birds were found decaying in crates and ponds or tossed outside like trash.

Modern, innovative down-free options are widely available—including at KÜHL, which already sells items made with PrimaLoft synthetic-down technology. Today’s plush down alternatives are often made from recycled materials and, unlike down, insulate even when wet.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.