Giant Christmas ‘Ducks’ Ruffle H&M’s Feathers Over Cruel Down Sales

PETA Targets Last Minute Holiday Shoppers 

A cold wave is striking, and a flock of PETA supporters wearing giant duck masks with Santa hats braved the chilly winds to swoop down on H&M’s flagship store in Taipei today to call out the company’s use of cruelly produced down and urge shoppers not to buy down products even if they’re labelled as “responsible down” or Responsible Down Standard–certified.

As revealed in PETA’s 13-month investigation into duck farms and slaughterhouses across Vietnam—which claim to provide “responsible” down to manufacturers, including H&M—ducks suffered from gaping and bloody wounds in dirty sheds and on lots strewn with feces and were stabbed in the neck while still conscious. Many of the birds continued to move for more than a minute after workers cut their necks.

“Ducks just want to forage, swim, and fly with their mates, yet they’re crammed into filthy pens and hacked apart for down used by H&M,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is urging H&M to cut ties with the cruel down industry and for everyone to show compassion and kindness by only buying vegan materials.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow the group on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), or Facebook.