Bird Plucking: Goose Down
Who Thinks About the Geese?
It's plucked from geese and eider ducks. What's the big deal, some might think. Geese and ducks are raised and butchered for meat all the time. They have to be plucked before they are skinned; it would be an economic waste to just throw away the down feathers. This is a valid point. I can think of no objections to plucking and using down from a bird that is being slaughtered for food.
That's not where all the down comes from though. Some geese are raised for their down. What's wrong with this, you might wonder. We raise and slaughter animals for meat all the time, why not for down? Slaughtering animals is done in a quick, painless, humane way. Geese raised for down do not get a painless life.
Geese raised for down are live-plucked numerous times in their life. Some places that practice this will pluck the geese the first time when they are ten weeks old and then every six weeks thereafter, sometimes up they are four years old.
This procedure is extremely painful for the animal. Imagine having all the hair on your head plucked out, one by one. Only imagine your follicles are really thick so that it's more difficult to pull them out. Now imagine having this done every couple months for four years.
Some might question whether or not this plucking actually harms the geese in any way. An article on the PETA media center website talks about studies they have done on this subject. It says that the heart rate and behaviors of the animals clearly indicate that having their feathers plucked most likely causes both pain and distress. The studies also show that having their feathers plucked caused their glucose blood level to double. This is an indication of high amounts of stress. Another point that shows that plucking would be indeed painful is the fact that birds, including ducks and geese, do have pain receptors in their skin from which the feathers are plucked.
If you want to help these companies that employ this practice of live geese plucking get less business, simply resist the urge to buy down products. It is expensive, and if it gets wet it's useless. Buy a less expensive alternative that works just as well, if not better, like primaloft and thinsulate. They are just as warm and they didn't contribute to a life of pain for so many geese.
Published by Theresa Sylvester
I'm 23 year old single mother. Trying to get my life on track. I hope that in a year I'll have a real job and my own place. For now, I'm watching my little girl grow and being nanny to my nephew and suppleme... View profile
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- A goose may be plucked many times in its short life.
- Plucking cause pain and stress for the animal.
- There are less expensive alternatives to down products.
18 Comments
Post a CommentHey nancy,
You point is stupid! People CHOOSE to pluck the hair from their legs. Geese don't choose to be kept in confinement with hundreds or thousands of other geese and have their feathers plucked. If they pluck their own feathers for the puropose of building a nest, fine, that's natural to them. Humans have no right to do this to them. When are people going to finally gain enough intelligence to know that we can't treat animals like this! And what happens to the geese when they no longer produce enough down for a profit. Are they allowed to live the rest of their lives peacefully? NOT!It's nothing more than common sense that animals USED for products are treated like shit. But many people here who don't believe this is true clearly lack common sense.
goose season started this week and i have killed three. however the down from my geese was plucked by a processor who sells the down. hundreds of thousands of geese killed by hunter every year go to the same place so not all down is from live geese and duck.
TOTAL RUBBISH & written by someone who knows very little about the subject. Re: "They have to be plucked before they are skinned." ....Geese are NOT skinned, neither are chickens.That's why they need to be plucked. And the plucking's not horrifying or unbearably painful because the down which is on the bird's breast is naturally loose......because as well as insulating the goose, it's plucked out by the goose & gander ,every spring, to make a thick down lining for their (rather large) nest. It may be frightening & uncomfortable but nothing extreme. Think about all those millions of women CHOOSING to have their legs waxed, or going Brazilian. PETA apparently believe that what's OK for humans is cruely to geese.
This is such BS. All you idiots fell for it. It's PETA's way of gathering money and support. They staged the whole thing.
btw, the farmers in Switzerland said that the geese naturally shed their feathers and all one needs to do is run their fingers through the animal as if stroking it. I am sorry for posting so much but I had no idea....and as far as the sociopath remark i meant they (people with sociopath tendencies like in the Chinese and German goose stripping farms) have no regard for the living, unable to love and use pain (inflicting on other living creatures) for stimulation....i'm just so bummed....
I meant SOCIOPATH... as people who abuse animals have no boundaries when it comes to embracing life and it's living creatures.
It is truly HORRIFIC! I just saw a show on down products. They filmed the cruel torture, agony and abuse that geese endure all for freakin DOWN!!! Germany, USA and China being the largest demons in this atrocity. I live in Switzerland and they have strictly enforced laws about animal abuse. Ikea is a huge supporter of down imported from China where geese are stripped BLOODY and left barely alive if not dead. I was so nauseous and watched in complete horror as humans, displaying idiopathic behavior, savagely tore the feathers out of the screaming birds! One man severed the gooses neck and tried to sew it closed as it slowly died. The pile of half dead feeling crying animals lay in piles upon the barn floor. These factories hire immigrants who move though the barn with incredibly painful speed as the are paid practically nothing for brutalizing these LIVING, FEELING beautiful creatures! I WON"T shop at Ikea anymore....
who cares think of how much hair we loose every time we brush our hair get over it and move on
they do, but not enough people eat geese and plenty of people use down, when demand out strips supply you get geese being produced for down, and people determined to squeeze as much profit as possible from living animals, no matter what the cost.
While I do feel sorry about the animal's pain... it lends itself to more questions. Why DONT "they" use the down from slaughtered animals? There must be a reason?