Vegan Gains is WRONG about "Canada Goose".
17 February 2016 [link youtube]
"What a tangled web we weave…"
You would expect to see a clear statement from Canada Goose boasting that their products are 100% goose down from geese raised in Canada, etc., in the same way that wool companies boast about being 100% wool, from a particular breed of sheep, in a particular location. Instead, the company makes a vague claim about being created from, "poultry by-products", and to me that suggests chicken-feathers… or, at least, a mix of chicken feathers, and whatever the cheapest by-products of the poultry industry may be that month (down on the factory-room floor).
A viewer wrote in with further information, suggesting that Canada Goose is using the term "poultry by-product" in an even more peculiar way than my video supposes. Although "down" isn't supposed to include "poultry", the word "poultry" can (in fact) be used to include ducks and geese; and this viewer reports, "[Canada Goose specifies that] their sole supplier of down is Feather Industries Canada. If you go to the Feather Industries Web site, you can see a list of their feather products, and none of them are from chickens…". The link to that website is here, although I still would not regard this as a clear (legally-binding) indication that they aren't using chicken-feathers (i.e., I think the Canada Goose company would be clearer about this, if it were in their interest to be so, and for all I know Feather Industries Corp. could be shipping chicken-feathers via their Toronto warehouses, despite what's stated here): http://www.featherind.com/Product.htm
Although they may sound like a heartless corporation, the even-more-bizarre fact is that "Feather Industries" is religious foundation, operated by-and-for a Hutterite colony: http://www.featherind.com/hutterite-gallery.html
Some websites claim that the down is… uh… "more ethical" because of the religious nature of the people plucking the ducks and geese. The opposite point-of-view is easy to imagine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutterite
So… have we been deceived, or have we been doubly-deceived? And does the phrase "poultry by-product" legitimately (and legally) mean "duck down", or does it mean chicken-feathers from the killing room floor?
Cf. the industry's (standard?) use of these terms, here: "Down and feathers are normally obtained from goose and duck farms as a by-product of the poultry industry. Birds are not raised for their down, but rather for their meat - just as leather is a by-product of the beef industry." (*Ahem*… right… just like the leather industry.) http://downmark.com/consumer_information/down_feather_quality.htm
Peculiar. The matter seems to be intentionally unclear, in claiming to both be "down" and "a poultry by-product".
Youtube Automatic Transcription
vegan gains on a factual error but he made a mistake in his video about Canada goose that I think is actually quite interesting and instructive and also reflects some of the issues I've been talking about in recent videos on this very YouTube channel he assumes based on their advertising that Canada deuce Canada goose pardon me produces coats made out of duck down or perhaps goose down neither of those things is true although they use the word down somewhat vaguely if you check the details on their website Canada goose will confirm for you that their jackets are stuffed with chicken feathers even worse their chicken feathers that are a byproduct of the poultry industry now if you've done some research on this you will find that the factory farming of chickens engages in some gruesome practices to try to get chickens to shed as many feathers as possible before they're slaughtered onto the floor of the factory farm which is often not a real floor for this reason so that they can collect the fine feathers that fall off of the chicken they'll have a grid and then a solid floor under that so they can easily remove the feathers and use them for industrial purposes such as this now how do you get chickens to shed more of their feathers before you take them away to be executed you can poison them you can electrocute them but actually what I've read is common are simply using different methods of terrifying them including turning the lights off and on suddenly and playing loud noises and things like that now whether or not these methods are really effective is one thing whether or not farmers do them as another and believe me some guys on the farm can decide that terrifying chickens makes them shed their feathers and can engage in animal cruelty for this reason it doesn't mean it works scientifically folks I think actually some of the chemical additives that are given to chickens to make them grow more rapidly have turned out you know they're terrible in terms of their environmental impacts they don't cause health problems for humans directly in terms of the the meat of the chickens but a lot of them have really terrible effects in terms of the waste stream cycle from animal agriculture but some of them have turned out when scientists actually went in and looked and verified farmers have been forced feeding chickens with these horrible chemicals and they're not even effective so this is another dimension of the bizarre evils of mass animal agriculture um I made a long video recently talking about effective methods of activism talked about different types of legal challenges you can bring against meatpacking industry and so on you know executing cows is not illegal but if you look in the details a huge truck that weighs over a certain limit going over a certain bridge they may be violating the law on that if you can bring a case to court saying this truck going over this bridge is illegal now you've got a wedge issue get in the newspapers start talking about the deeper issues but also in the short term create a problem for the industry start asking difficult questions right do you think it's legal in your country wherever you're living to advertise chicken feathers as down I can tell you that here in Canada it is not legal and anyone who wants to get their act together to go to court would have a very strong case to make against the Canada Goose company that their jackets are illegal that they are getting gauging in deceptive and false advertising practices because very few people are aware that it is not duck down that it is not goose down that it's actually these chicken feathers now again to be clear for those of you who are big fans of Gary France aione you can see my video made quite recently about Gary France a on his theory and approach to veganism my point is not that it would be more ethical for them to use duck down instead of chicken feathers they're both horrible from vegan perspective but my point is this type of detailed pragmatic nuanced approach to animal rights gives you real opportunities to make a difference opportunities to get the more profound issues into the press sometimes by engaging with legal issues that are if regarded in isolation perhaps meaningless Canada goose is a scumbag company take them to court give them hell