Horrifying footage shows workers at a firm that supplies down for Canada Goose rounding up terrified geese and cramming them into tiny cages.
At least one bird is said to have been crushed to death, and others suffocated during the scenes that unfolded at James Valley Colony Farms in Manitoba, Canada.
Workers then grabbed and carried birds by the neck and shoved them into cramped cages for a journey to the abattoir that lasted more than five hours.
There, workers shackled them, hung them upside down, and slit their throats as other birds watched.
At least one bird is said to have been crushed to death, and others suffocated during the scenes that unfolded at James Valley Colony Farms in Manitoba, Canada
Workers then grabbed and carried birds by the neck and shoved them into cramped cages for a journey to the abattoir that lasted more than five hours
The footage prompted PETA US to file a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission and the Canadian Competition Bureau, challenging Canada Goose’s claims that its products are ‘ethically sourced’ and ‘humane’.
‘This is false advertising, because there’s nothing ‘humane’ about trampling and suffocating geese, grabbing them by the neck, and cramming them into tiny cages for hours of terror and misery,’ says PETA Director Elisa Allen.
‘PETA is calling on consumers to refuse to buy Canada Goose’s cruelly produced coats and anything else stuffed with tormented birds’ down.’
The organisation claims geese were sometimes left in transport cages overnight with no food or water and that after the long journey, the cages were filthy with faeces and feathers.
After slaughter, many birds’ bodies had visibly bruised and broken wings, apparently caused by the long confinement to cramped metal crates.
The footage prompted PETA US to file a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission and the Canadian Competition Bureau, challenging Canada Goose’s claims that its products are ‘ethically sourced’ and ‘humane’.
There, workers shackled them, hung them upside down, and slit their throats as other birds watched
The exposé includes footage from James Valley Colony Farms in Manitoba, Canada, which breeds 130,000 geese per year, and Schiltz Foods in South Dakota, US, the largest goose abattoir in North America.
James Valley Colony Farms, which appears in a Canada Goose promotional video, sends geese to Schiltz for slaughter and sells their down to Canada Goose’s only down supplier, Toronto’s Feather Industries, which claims that it buys only from farms that practise ‘ethical and humane treatment’ of animals.
James Valley Colony Farms told Global News that it would it would train staff to ensure animals are ‘treated more humanely during loading’.
Canada Goose’s coats are also trimmed with fur from coyotes, who can suffer in traps for days before they’re shot or bludgeoned to death.
MailOnline has contacted Canada Goose for comment.