PETA Asia investigated RDS-certified goose farms in Russia—which exports down to countries around the world—revealing that geese were beheaded with a dull axe while they were fully conscious. See for yourself what happens to geese who are slaughtered for “responsible” down. Then take action to help stop this violence.

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According to Dr. Heather Rally, a PETA veterinarian who reviewed the footage, “[The geese] undoubtedly suffered tremendous pain while being suspended and restrained by the wings and having their necks mutilated with several blows from an axe that apparently was dull.”

The RDS claims to follow the production of down from “farm to product,” but the representative said that auditors don’t ask farmers how the geese are raised. If the auditors are locals, “They don’t even have to ask,” he said. “They know how the birds are kept.” The RDS certification procedures allow entire “farm areas” to be certified by auditing just a sample of a given area. That means that RDS administrators may not know what’s taking place on most farms when certifying entire regions.

But when PETA and PETA Asia went inside farms connected to these certified and “responsible” companies, they uncovered shocking cruelty that cast significant doubt on down standards. Investigators spoke with suppliers to these so-called “responsible” and “non live-pluck” companies, and they admitted to buying and selling live-plucked down. One buyer even bragged about misleading customers, and an industry representative remarked, “We advertised that it’s all plucked after slaughter—nobody dares to buy it if you say it’s live-plucked.” Their solution? Mislabel their live-plucked down as “non live-plucked” so that people will buy it.

Athletic apparel company lululemon refuses to acknowledge how geese die for their down jackets and continues to hide behind the meaningless Responsible Down Standard (RDS) and the claim that the birds used for its down jackets are treated “humanely and with respect.” Every down-filled jacket in lululemon’s stock represents the pain and fear of gentle birds who didn’t want to die.

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