When you sleep at a Marriott hotel, your head may be resting on feathers torn from live geese.

Marriott uses goose down products throughout its hotel chain. Its lead supplier gets its feathers from Hungary, a country where much of the down is ripped out of live, force-fed geese that often endure this process 6-7 times before it finally kills them. And neither Marriott nor their supplier have gone on the record that they intend to get their down by uncruel means.

I’m calling on Marriott to stop using cruel goose down bedding, and switch to ethical down alternatives.

It’s clear that there are down alternatives up to Marriott’s standards, because it already sells these products on its web site, and selectively uses them in its hotels. Marriott offers these ethical alternatives to guests with down allergies, referring to them as “a guest favorite for years” that will provide “many nights of relaxing sleep.” So why not just switch to this “guest favorite” once and for all?

Live-plucking causes birds immeasurable pain and distress. Once their feathers are ripped out, many of the birds are left with gaping wounds, and some even die from the trauma. The birds’ skin is often sewn without use of anesthetics, and most birds are plucked repeatedly in their lives.

I don’t want to sleep in hotel bedding that may be the product of animal torture. Call on Marriott to use ethical alternatives to goose down in all of its bedding, not just some of it.