UKC

Hi All,

I am interested to know if anyone has any information, or has ever considered the origin of the down in insulated products?

I have recently been toying with buying a down jacket but after thinking about what down actually is I looked into how we obtain it at an industrial scale. See PETA's current campaign:

http://action.peta.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=5&ea.campaign.i...

It appears to me that in order for many of us to be nice and toasty on that windswept belay in our down jacket there is likely to of been considerable suffering in its production.

I doubt it is too presumptuous of me to assume that most of us that enjoy outdoor sports have a wish to preserve nature and I feel that goes hand in hand with compassion for the creatures we share it with.

Does anyone have information from the major suppliers e.g. Rab etc.. about their down sources?

Also what are your thoughts on this?

In reply to Rassapotimus:

Good article here ; http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=5183

I think there were a couple of others on the forums as well worth a search .

In reply to Rassapotimus:

There was quite a long thread about this a few weeks ago. Have a search - I think there were statements about the positions of various major brands.

Thanks all, good to see that article on ukc.

In reply to Rassapotimus: my thoughts? PETA are a political organisation that does not really care for animals, they are more concerned with fund raising for political lobbying their own agenda. Google what they do with most of the rescues they are supposed to look after. All of the British gear manufacturers use ethically sourced down if it helps.

In reply to Rassapotimus:

i work for a company that designs and produces down products amongst other things.
we go with Allied Feather & Down, as do many others.

http://www.alliedfeather.com/node/65

In reply to Rassapotimus: Google ethical consumer, they have done articles on outdoor clothing

In reply to Rassapotimus: recently I went to buy a down sleeping bag. When discussing my options the vendor asked if knowing whether the down was ethically and humanely sourced was an important issue for me. Naively I hadn't even considered there was an un-ethical way to collect down. Apparently all the big brands are changing their ways and becoming more ethical. With Mountain Equipment for example it is possible to enter a barcode from the purchased item and find out exactly where and how the down was sourced.

In reply to Rassapotimus:

Patagonia's take on the issue:

http://www.thecleanestline.com/2009/09/why-do-you.html

I imagine that many other manufacturers also avoid live-plucked down.

In reply to Rassapotimus: Rab's down is now all ethical (and more traceable than many other companies as it's from Europe rather than China)
http://www.occoutdoor.co.uk/news/rab-moves-to-ethical-down-as-daily-mail-ig...