Animal welfare
At Ticket to Heaven we are attentive to animal welfare. We are opposed to the rearing of animals solely for the production of clothes. We have the following policy regarding the area:
- We never use fur of any kind in any of our products, since we cannot guarantee that the animals have been raised under responsible conditions.
- We only use down and feathers from ducks raised for the food industry.
- We do not use down or feathers plucked from live ducks
- We do not use wool from sheep exposed to ‘mulesing’, which is the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech (buttocks) of a sheep to prevent maggot infestation.
We ask our suppliers to sign a warranty on these issues.
How can Ticket to Heaven be sure that down has not been plucked from live ducks?
There are two reasons why we can be certain:
Our suppliers of down jackets have signed a statement that the down is solely a by-product from the food industry, and that it is not plucked from live ducks. We are aware that a signature alone is not proof enough in itself, which is why we have further investigated these conditions.
We have been in close dialogue with a leading laboratory on the subject of down, International Down and Feather Lab (IDFL). They know the production of down in China real well, since their boss has lived in the country for several years.
IDFL has ensured us that feathers from ducks are never plucked from live animals. Down from ducks in China is always a by-product of food production.
It is solely feathers from geese which are plucked from live animals, but primarily when they are moulting. Ticket do not use down from geese.
This is how we can be certain that our suppliers live up to our demands of only using down from the food industry.