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How Feather Extensions Are Killing Thousands Of Roosters Every Week

by Verena von Pfetten | 4:43 pm, June 8th, 2011


In case you needed one more reason to avoid falling victim to a fashion trend championed by the likes of Miley Cyrus, Kesha (we refuse to type that dollar sign), and Hilary Duff, we’re here to tell you that feather hair extensions don’t only look dumb, they’re killing roosters as we speak.

A terrifyingly earnest piece from the Seattle Times alerted us to this violent trend, wherein roosters lose their lives and fly fisherman their precious bait. The feathers used for hair extensions, you see, are the same feathers used by fly fisherman as lures — and eager fashionistas everywhere are snatching them up at hundreds of dollars over the market price. These feathers are no ordinary feathers. As Matt Brower, a guide and assistant manager at Idaho Angler in Boise, told the Times, “It takes years and years and years to develop these chickens to grow these feathers. And now, instead of ending up on a fly, it’s going into women’s hair.”

These birds are genetically bred for their feathers and, sadly, most do not survive plucking. Writes the Times:

Whiting Farms is harvesting about 1,500 birds a week for their feathers and still can’t keep up with its current orders, said owner and founder Tom Whiting, a poultry geneticist. The company has stopped taking on new accounts.

“I’ve tried to withhold some for the fly-fishing world because when the fashion trend goes away, which it will, I’ve still got to make a living,” he said.

The most ominous aspect of this trend is its sheer pervasiveness. Its biggest supporters may be in Beverly Hills, but even the smallest of states is not immune.

The company was the one that told Bernstein in Maine several months ago that rooster saddle feathers had somehow become the latest coveted hair accessory. Bernstein said he scoffed at the notion that it could reach his shop along the coast of Southern Maine.

“This is Maine, it’s not California. We’re a little behind the trends here,” he said. “I screwed up. I should have said: ‘Send me everything you’ve got.”‘

So, ladies, stop with the feather extensions. And if you won’t do it for your sartorial credibility, then please, just do it for the roosters. (And the fisherman, duh.)

[Seattle Times via Racked.]


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  • http://www.facebook.com/nicolas90631 Nicolas Hernandez

    I am Ashamed to say i have some of these feathers mentioned above, but not for a fashion sense but to a cultural one, they use these feathers also for the Native American dreamcatchers that i have a few of.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000755787342 Natasha Myers

    I am Native American and the only time we used fathers was when we ate the bird everything had to be used this is sick and very wrong to me to kill millions for feathers!!

  • Pinklady800

    So it’s ok to kill the roosters for fishing but not for hair?

  • Perlasanchez

    I agree with you Pink lady! Why is is deemed okay to kill for fishing but not for hair??!

  • Candychica01

    i have feather extensions but i thought they were not from roosters… i thought they were fake. It helps to read

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1369219447 Sarah Onions

    Yer ok this is bad but you don’t have to “genetically alter” cockerels for their feathers, anyone who works with chickens can tell you that most if not all cockerels have long tail and saddle feathers (i mean look at the Phoenix breed of chicken).
    On the hole this needs to stop but the “alter”-ing part of this is c**p.

  • Togepi357

    It’s ok to kill for fishing beacuase some people make a livving in the fishing industry. Having feathers in your hair isn’t going to put food on your table, and clothes on your children.

  • Kristi

    It puts food on the table of the hairdressers performing the service. It has also brought in new business for me. Another thing… I heard some companies don’t kill the roosters but just harvest the feathers by cutting them. Why would they kill a rooster that took special breeding when you can cut feathers and regrow them?
     

  • Kristi

    It puts food on the table of the hairdressers performing the service. It has also brought in new business for me. Another thing… I heard some companies don’t kill the roosters but just harvest the feathers by cutting them. Why would they kill a rooster that took special breeding when you can cut feathers and regrow them?
     

  • Bianca Jay14

    fishing is for suvival. you have eat to survive. to kill roosters for fashion is awful. u dont have to kill these beautiful creatures just because you want to look “cool”…. anyways, they make faux feather extentions, why you wear those?

  • Bianca Jay14

    ok, my mom is a hairstylist, we do just fine without her having to do something like this. its one thing to eat their meat for survival, its another thing to use their feather for some ugly trend.. and most companies kill the roosters because once their feathers are gone they have no use for them..

  • Bianca Jay14

    that really isnt the point, the point is that they are killing these roosters for some ugly fashion trend.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000318600694 ‘Courtney Rose

    Because they wouldn’t last for 1-3 months.

  • Kristi

    I’m just saying, it’s been good for my business. I have worn feathers for years, because I like them, and if it makes people happy and they are using the roosters anyway why not share. The trend will dye and they will still be killing roosters for fly fishing. I know the breeder who sells to the company I get my feathers from have great living conditions for the birds, and uses all bi-products. So I wonder… do they kill peacocks, and other birds just for feathers as well? Probably and they have been doing it for years. 

  • Alex

    Selfish.  You like them, that’s why?  The roosters probably like their lives but apparently a FASHION accessory is more important to you?  Imagine if the tables were turned and a stronger being decided he liked one of your body parts.  I bet your opinion on this would change rather quickly.

  • Nemea

    The feathers Miley is wearing in the photo are *not* the feathers they are talking about in the article.

  • Kristi

    The company I get my feathers from are killing the same amount of roosters for this as they were years before the fashion trend
    (since 1989) for fly fishing. So they aren’t killing for fashion they
    are killing because that is how they make money, selling feathers, now the
    fly fishermen are pissed because they have to share, and their feathers
    are costing more. The roosters bred for this are kept in the best
    living conditions and have a humane death, so the feathers are not
    damaged, on top of the fact they are kept alive longer than food
    production birds.  I’ve been doing research on this topic the last week
    because I wanted to know for myself.

  • Kristi
  • Tracy

    the fishing they do is not for survival its their hobby

  • chinauno

    You know everyday you dont eat fish, sooo….go to the grocery store.They sale food their to eat .I fish too but, we dont eat fish everyday!!!!

  • chinauno

    When you buy things in the future research it ,they say the are rooster feathers unless its synthetic

  • chinauno

    They kill the chickens or roosters for meat and the feathers are bi products, it would be a waste to grow them that long to pluck them and kill them think about it and research it before you make some stupid statement.They collect the molted feathers.

  • PinkPrincess

    Okay i know there are some real feathers for your hair but they also have faux which is what most people are using. Really! There wouldnt be enough feathers for every trend hungry girl in the world. My cousin came in with 8 FAKE ones and now i want  like 10 they are fun and the new style. Just like fur coats… there are real ones or faux…… Simple as that

  • Anonymous

    Really, you feel shame over feathers?  lol   I find it odd that some people would choose animals over people and their well being.  If you don’t like the product don’t buy it, that’s the freedom of capitalism. Don’t demonize the people that do like it, that’s being a bully.

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