Urge Chanel to Stop Using Ostrich Feathers in Their Designs

Luxury French fashion house Chanel has made significant progress in eliminating abusive materials from its collections since announcing in 2018 that it would stop using fur and exotic skins. However, seven years later, the brand is still participating in a deeply cruel and often overlooked form of animal abuse in the fashion industry by continuing to use ostrich feathers in its designs.

In fashion, ostrich feathers are used in everything from feather boas to fringed dresses, but the demand for them fuels an industry that slaughters over a million birds every year. Although ostriches can live up to 40 years in complex social groups, most farmed ostriches are killed at just one year old, before they even reach adulthood. Newly hatched chicks are shoved onto barren feedlots to live brief, lonely lives, despite the fact that in the wild, they would naturally spend seven months under the care of both their mothers and fathers. Ostriches are highly devoted and protective parents yet the vast majority of babies born onto ostriches farms never have the opportunity to meet their parents or live in family groups. 

Unlike most birds, ostriches do not molt, meaning they never naturally shed their feathers. To fuel the fashion industry, many endure the extreme pain of having their feathers ripped out while fully conscious and without any form of pain management. Others are defeathered after being slaughtered for meat.

The global demand for ostrich feathers is mainly met by farms in South Africa, which supply 75% of the world’s ostrich products. Undercover investigations have repeatedly exposed the violent and abusive treatment of birds on these farms and in slaughterhouses. Footage has shown young ostriches being live-plucked, while others have been filmed being hit in the head or forcibly restrained by workers before being electrically stunned, having their throats slit, and then having their feathers torn from their bodies.

This form of animal cruelty is both shocking and entirely unnecessary as beautiful, feather-free fashion is absolutely possible. Stella McCartney, a trailblazer in compassionate fashion, recently became the first major brand to sign PETA’s Feather-Free Pledge, committing never to use feathers in any of its products. Some major fashion events are also taking action: both Copenhagen and Helsinki Fashion Weeks have banned feathers from their shows, and in November 2024, the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival announced that it was banning all wild animal products, including ostrich feathers.

Chanel has the opportunity to once again be a leader in ethical fashion by joining Stella McCartney in ending its use of cruelly acquired ostrich feathers.

Take Action Now

Please join Species Unite in calling on Chanel to make the ethical and compassionate choice by ditching feathers now.