For Quick Launch:
December 1, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Vancouver – Business commerce group Textile Trade (TE)—whose certifications are utilized by domestically headquartered manufacturers Aritzia, lululemon, and Arc’teryx—is the topic of a formal PETA criticism to the federal Competitors Bureau alleging that TE’s “Accountable Down Customary” (RDS) and “Accountable Animal Fiber” (RAF) labels are deceptive and deceive shoppers. The criticism follows a number of PETA exposés of the down trade revealing that filth, struggling, and violent deaths are trade norms and happen even on licensed farms.

Aritzia, lululemon, and Arc’teryx all boast about their RDS and RAF certifications—which TE created following a number of PETA’s exposés—encouraging clients to purchase their merchandise beneath the idea that the animals used to supply them have been handled humanely. PETA’s criticism asserts that TE and the businesses that use its labels make advertising claims that deceive clients whether or not by design or unintentionally:

• TE claims that its farms meet “strict animal welfare requirements” and that “animals are nicely cared for and by no means handled with cruelty”—but its requirements permit use of the “accountable” label on merchandise for weeks after inspectors discover violations. PETA Asia’s latest investigation into Vietnamese duck farms and slaughterhouses that bought “accountable” down reveals geese affected by gaping and bloody wounds, languishing in soiled sheds and on tons strewn with feces, and being stabbed within the neck and their toes being reduce off whereas nonetheless acutely aware.
• TE claims that its farms are independently audited, however the audits are usually preannounced, and beneath its space certification scheme, some farms might by no means be visited by an unbiased auditor. PETA Asia’s investigation revealed {that a} farm in Russia that was reportedly RDS-certified didn’t even know that it was and had been failing to stun birds earlier than hacking off their heads with a boring axe.
• TE claims that it tracks the provision chain of its licensed down “from farm to ultimate product,” however it doesn’t require each father or mother farm that provides eggs and hatchlings to even be licensed. Mum or dad farms due to this fact typically live-pluck birds, a painful and traumatic course of—prohibited by TE’s requirements—through which their feathers are torn out whereas they’re acutely aware. This course of is repeated as soon as the feathers develop again and will be inflicted as much as 16 instances earlier than the fowl dies or is slaughtered.

“If shoppers knew that geese have been stabbed and their toes have been reduce off whereas nonetheless acutely aware for ‘accountable’ down, they’d by no means purchase these merchandise,” says PETA Director of Company Duty Laura Shields. “PETA is urging the Competitors Bureau to analyze Textile Trade’s misleading advertising scheme that misleads well-intentioned buyers at retailers like lululemon, Aritzia, and Arc’teryx.”

PETA’s criticism asks the Competitors Bureau to require TE to take away all deceptive statements from its advertising and challenge corrective explanations that reveal how the animals on its licensed farms are literally handled.

PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals should not ours to put on or abuse in every other manner”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For extra info on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please go to PETA.org, hearken to The PETA Podcast, or observe the group on X (previously Twitter), Fb, or Instagram.