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

Following this past summer’s beloved “Double Ducks” art installation in Victoria Harbour, a flock of “ducks” hit the city, but this time to protest. A group of PETA supporters wearing giant “duck” masks and costumes swooped down on H&M’s flagship store in Hong Kong on World Kindness Day (13 November) 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 (RDS)–certified.

As revealed in PETA Asia’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 lots strewn with feces and in dirty sheds 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.”

When: Monday, 13 November, 12 noon

Where: The pedestrian area outside the H&M Fashion Walk Flagship Store, Hang Lung Centre, 2-20 Paterson Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (Google Map)

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 X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.

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