 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It's the Daily Mail.
While I know this practice DOES happen, it isn't nearly as widespread as this article suggests. I did some research and reading into this a few years ago, I'll see if I can find the papers and books
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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feef, most down seems to come from China. Are you saying that the Chinese are more humane than Hungarians? I somehow doubt it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Bode Swiller, thanks for posting this - I had no idea. Relieved to see that Mammut and Mountain Hardwear (makers of the 2 jackets I own) both have statements on their websites explicitly condemning live plucking.
feef - I hope you are right and would be interested to see your reading if you can find it. This is horrible. [quote]
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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[quote="ksscott"]Bode Swiller, thanks for posting this - I had no idea. Relieved to see that Mammut and Mountain Hardwear (makers of the 2 jackets I own) both have statements on their websites explicitly condemning live plucking.
feef - I hope you are right and would be interested to see your reading if you can find it. This is horrible.
What you posted about Mammut and Mountain Hardwear was the same sort of thing I found out about most of the big-name manufacturers. A lot of the cheaper brands don't have such statements.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Think I've only had 2 downs - Mountain Equipment and Marmot. Both relatively ancient. Now on Primaloft as less crap to get over your clothes when it moults.
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| feef wrote: |
| What you posted about Mammut and Mountain Hardwear was the same sort of thing I found out about most of the big-name manufacturers. A lot of the cheaper brands don't have such statements. |
They're cheap for a reason. But beyond that, it is startlingly hard to find out the provenance of cheap Chinese down... Alpkit seem to have spent some time trying to find out about the down they purchase, and haven't managed to make a whole lot of progress: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Seems like many brands are well aware of the issue and do point out that they don't use live-plucked down.... Mountain Equipment, PHDesigns, Montane, Patagonia (whose major supplier, Allied Feather and Down is also used by TNF and Helly Hansen), Valandre (though you actually have to read all that blurb carefully; they don't trumpet the fact), Marmot and Berghaus, to name a few I've looked at. Certainly there will be more, but I've not taken the trouble to look 
Others (Rab and Norrona, for example) state their down is a byproduct of the food industry, which probably means that it is not lived plucked but don't state it explicitly. MEC have requested that their suppliers do not provide live-plucked down, but it isn't at all clear whether they do or not.
There's also the issue of foie gras farming, whatever you might think of that. Only a few manufacturers explicitly state that the geese they source their down from are only farmed for their meat (see the Patagonia link above).
There are a few manufacturers who do go a step further and use down that's been naturally shed, so the geese aren't harmed at all... Tundra and Crux both state this. This also means the down is from mature birds and is allegedly better as a result, but it is also a much more limited source and much more expensive to harvest so no big brands are likely to follow this route any time soon.
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Poor ducks, that's horrible!
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