In reply to Frank Thompson:
> (In reply to UKC Gear)
> [...]
> However the most important factor in buying synthetic jackets is that no animals are abused in their production which is more that can be said for down clothing. Apparently plucking of live birds is practiced by some down suppliers, which as one can imagine is extremely painful and stressful for the birds. Wouldn't it be great to end the abuse and slaughter of all factory farmed ducks and geese. Choose synthetic over down clothing !
I don't wish to trivialise the abuse of down-providing birds, but it seems to be possible to favour brands that at least proscribe the use of live-plucked down (Rab and PHD, for example, both state that they don't use 'abusive' down) rather than having to avoid down altogether. It's still a better insulator than the synthetic alternatives, after all, and there's arguably an ethical case against using petroleum-derived materials.