{"id":193067,"date":"2018-12-08T02:19:03","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T07:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=193067"},"modified":"2018-12-08T02:19:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T07:19:03","slug":"peta-threatens-to-sue-city-of-toronto-and-astral-media-over-canada-goose-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/08\/peta-threatens-to-sue-city-of-toronto-and-astral-media-over-canada-goose-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"PETA threatens to sue City of Toronto and Astral Media over Canada Goose ads"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Astral Media Vehicle (File Photo By Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler\/Wikimedia <\/a>commons, CC0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is threatening to sue the City of Toronto and Astral Media for removing anti- Canada\u00a0Goose ads.<\/p>\n

The animal rights group said Friday that it will commence legal action against the city and Astral, if they do not repost ads the group paid to put up in September that criticized the Toronto-based luxury jacket maker for using goose down and coyote fur in its jackets.<\/p>\n

The ads featured images of the animals with captions saying \u201cI’m a living being, not a piece of fur trim\u201d and \u201cI’m a living being, not jacket filling\u201d and were put up at bus shelters between\u00a0Canada\u00a0Goose’s headquarters and the home of the company’s CEO, Dani Reiss.<\/p>\n

PETA’s assistant manager of clothing campaigns Christina Sewell told The Canadian Press the ads were meant to run for four weeks, but were up for less than 24 hours in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cAstral let us know they had to pull the ads because they had too many numerous complaints,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Bell Media Inc., which owns Astral, confirmed it removed the ads because they were not in line with a part of the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards that restricts ads from disparaging organizations or causing public ridicule.<\/p>\n

PETA claims it is not violating the standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cPETA’s position remains that its right to free expression includes the right to place this particular artwork \u2014 in its current form \u2014 on city property, and that the removal of its artwork violated this right,\u201d the group said in a letter it sent to the city, Bell Media and Astral Media on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Asked about the ads, City of Toronto spokesperson Eric Holmes said Astral \u201cis responsible for applying the standards and any decisions related to the approval and removal of advertising content on these assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sewell, who called the ads \u201cbenign,\u201d said PETA doesn’t have a timeline for how soon it will take legal action if the ads aren’t reposted, but is committed to carrying out their threat.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Canada\u00a0Goose spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The company has long been in PETA’s crosshairs.<\/p>\n

PETA members, sometimes dressed as coyotes, have protested in front of the apparel company’s stores and have repeatedly billed\u00a0Canada\u00a0Goose as a perpetrator of \u201cshameless cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many cruelty-free alternatives out there and things that are made out of plants or synthetic. Fur is hugely detrimental to the environment,\u201d Sewell said, noting that\u00a0Canada\u00a0Goose hasn’t gotten in touch with PETA since it unveiled the ads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been campaigning for several years now and we are very hard pressed to get a direct response from the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada\u00a0Goose previously fought complaints about its use of fur, saying that it is committed to the ethical treatment of animals, that \u201chaving fur trim around a jacket hood disrupts airflow which helps protect the face from frostbite\u201d and that it uses goose down because it is \u201cone of the world’s best natural insulators.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not condone any willful mistreatment, neglect, or acts that maliciously cause animals undue suffering,\u201d the company’s website says. \u201cOur standards for the sourcing and use of fur, down and wool reflect our commitment that materials are sourced from animals that are not subject to willful mistreatment or undue harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Companies in this story: (TSX:GOOS), (TSX:BCE)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is threatening to sue the City of Toronto and Astral Media …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":193068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-tara-deschamps","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}