Right, first off I could be opening a can of worms here but I'm trying to find some definitive answers on the ethics of goose down. There seems to be plenty of hear-say and hysteria on the subject but very little in the way of cold, hard facts.
As I understand it, most goose down is hand harvested from live animals. The geese can be plucked at roughly six week intervals, with most commercial birds being plucked 3-4 times. Now, my first reaction to this was abhorrence but in the interests of balance I'm trying to understand if this is as cruel as it first sounds.
From my own findings it is clear that the calamus [shaft] of the down feather is much finer that of the outer feathers and that the bond between feather and bird is quite weak. My uncle has a a few geese and we ambushed one to see how likely harvesting was to cause distress. There was the initial annoyance (the default state of a goose IMHO) at being caught but she remained quite calm as we located the down. We took great care with great attention to the state of the goose. From what I saw I would be happy to use goose down products if I could guarantee the down was collected with the same care.
Unfortunately, I suspect commercial harvesting will be less sympathetic so really I'm looking for opinions from anyone with experience in the industry. A long shot perhaps but worth a try.
As I understand it, most goose down is hand harvested from live animals. The geese can be plucked at roughly six week intervals, with most commercial birds being plucked 3-4 times. Now, my first reaction to this was abhorrence but in the interests of balance I'm trying to understand if this is as cruel as it first sounds.
From my own findings it is clear that the calamus [shaft] of the down feather is much finer that of the outer feathers and that the bond between feather and bird is quite weak. My uncle has a a few geese and we ambushed one to see how likely harvesting was to cause distress. There was the initial annoyance (the default state of a goose IMHO) at being caught but she remained quite calm as we located the down. We took great care with great attention to the state of the goose. From what I saw I would be happy to use goose down products if I could guarantee the down was collected with the same care.
Unfortunately, I suspect commercial harvesting will be less sympathetic so really I'm looking for opinions from anyone with experience in the industry. A long shot perhaps but worth a try.
