How about soft yet sturdy (re) covers and donate to a humane society or rescue for cat pillows?

Thrift stores in my area generally don't accept pillows anymore. I think it's a concern with bedbugs.

DEFINITELY make sure your seams are sound when washing/drying feather pillows, and DON'T leave one in the dryer unattended!!! My mom did that once, we came home from the grocery store to find our garage full of smoke - we were just moments away from a fire. One of the pillows burst open in the dryer and the feathers clogged the machine's vents, causing it to seriously overheat and some of the feathers were actually smouldering. That dryer never worked again, and our garage reeked of burnt feathers for months. Yuck, I swear I can still smell it right now, just thinking about it. It smelled so strongly you could actually taste it at first. Bleh.

But after we got a new dryer, we still washed & dried our feather pillows regularly. Mom just started reinforcing the seams first, and we never left the house while one was in the dryer again. :)

I don't have feather pillows anymore as DH is allergic to them. I miss them, though.

The animal shelter and rescue groups in our area use only towels so they can be washed, dried and re-used. Our darling rat terrier Lily took a feather pillow I made her and tore it to pieces. She was looking for the duck she was sure was hidden inside:) I really miss that sweet dog!

Wash them with ORVIS, I found mine in a feed store next to cleaning products for animals. Wash in a BIG commercial machine and then dry in a BIG dryer on Low or Just Air. My feather comforter is going on 15years and is still fluffy. I wash it once a year.

I have slept on feather pillows my whole life. All comments good. My pillows are made of down my mother & grandmother plucked from geese & ducks. Right now the feathers are 75 to 90 yrs old. My best advise is to buy good ticking. Transferring feathers from one pillow to new ticking is very time consuming. It takes 2 people to control feathers, one to hold new case other putting feathers in. Make sure to get all feathers stuck to old case. Good luck.