An animal rights group has written to organisers of the WOMADelaide world music festival urging them to shelve an act involving feathers from birds killed for meat.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants the Place des Anges circus act, which involves thousands of feathers being poured over crowds, removed from next year's schedule, or modified so it does not involve animal products.
WOMADelaide has defended the act's inclusion, insisting the duck feathers are sourced "ethically" and in line with animal welfare regulations from sites that "humanely farm the birds for the production of meat".
But PETA said there is "simply no way to guarantee" that, because "supply chains are so murky and regulations so often breached".
"The economic success of the slaughterhouses and factory farms are directly linked to the sale of those feathers … [which] are a co-product, I would say, more than a by-product," PETA spokesperson Laura Weyman-Jones told ABC Radio Adelaide's Jules Schiller.
"They've come from a factory farming system — no-one's walking around after birds scooping up their feathers as they moult.
"At the end of the day, when those feathers come showering down from above, that is symbolic of the thousands of birds that have had to die for that to happen."
But WOMADelaide director Ian Scobie said the festival would be sticking by the event, and also defended the process by which the feathers were obtained.
"We source the feathers through a reliable supplier in France who has certification both for the processing of the feathers and the treatment of the poultry … so we are quite confident they are sourced appropriately," he said.
Mr Scobie said he did not think the use of the feathers "undermines at all what WOMAD is about", and compared them to leather that "goes into shoes and belts as a by-product of the farming of cattle".
"I understand where PETA are coming from, it's a perfectly legitimate view to have, it's just not something that this particular show can do because the show itself is built around this particular effect," he said.
"I would counter the point that birds are being killed for it — the fact is that feathers are a by-product of poultry that is harvested for their meat."
Place des Anges last featured at the festival in 2018, when it triggered asthma-related concerns as well as similar backlash over its animal products.
Ms Weyman-Jones said PETA was supportive of WOMADelaide, describing it as spectacular, but said there was "another way to do this".
"Some of the suggestions on WOMAD's Facebook page — people were saying, 'Why not bubbles?'" she said.
On its website, WOMADelaide promotes itself as a vegan and vegetarian-friendly event, with an "emphasis on artisanship and ethical commerce".
