World Animal Protection Day: Visible and Stop Animal Cruelty in Clothing in Austria!-A New Chapter in the Supply Chain Atlas Reveals Animal Suffering in Down Products, COMÚN Foundation for the Common Good Creates a “Consumer Dialogue” on Textiles
World Animal Protection Day: Visible and Stop Animal Cruelty in Clothing in Austria!
On the occasion of World Animal Day, the Common Good Foundation COMÚN informs about the great suffering of animals in the textile industry. Research published by the Foundation suggests that downy products sold in Austria contain the infestation of geese and ducks. A related chapter was added to the “Supply Chain Atlas”; The complete research is available at www.lieferkettenatlas.com.
According to this, up to 80 percent of imported down comes from China, about 20 percent from the European Union – here mainly from Poland and Hungary. Cruel life-breaking or only slightly less animalistic “live-crushing” is practiced in these countries. Breeding animals that are broken alive up to 16 times in their lives, ducks in China are kept in huge facilities with one million animals.
Initiative Oekoreich calls for more transparency
The COMÚN Foundation for the Common Good is a sponsor of the Okörich initiative, the official successor to the Austrian people’s animal welfare initiative. It collected over 416,000 signatures in January 2021 and is still one of the most successful referendums in the last 20 years. In the interest of these many people, the Okorich initiative demands that transparency in textiles be widely increased:
“No one in Austria wants to suffer ducks, geese, or sheep in their clothes, the abuse of animals during live plucking and the like is barbaric. But in fact, this is what is in many sweaters, coats, and blankets that are now here again. are being sold – and many people experience it, not even that. We demand more transparency for textiles at the national level and more legal barriers at the European level,” said Sebastian Bohrn Mena, initiator of the animal welfare petition and Okorich spokesman says.
“Austrian Consumer Dialogue” on Textiles
The Common Good Foundation COMÚN is currently preparing the “Austrian Consumer Dialogue 2023” on the ecological and social dimensions of the production and distribution of textiles. It aims to showcase global “fast fashion” as well as regional options. Greenwashing expert and author Nunu Kallar will be in charge of the content. The event will take place in Hellen, near Salzburg, in June 2023.
The last consumer dialogue, which took place under the patronage of UNIDO on the topic of nutrition in May 2022, enabled more than 1,600 people and about 100 experts from science, business, agriculture, civil society, and politics, including ministers.