The Swedish clothing giant H&M has just announced that they will immediately halt production of clothes made with angora hair, after an undercover investigation by PETA revealed the horrific production methods of angora farming from factories in China (where 90 percent of angora wool is produced for world markets).
This is H&M’s latest step in an ethical direction, following their 2009 commitment to no longer stock exotic animal skins, and their 2008 pledge to no longer sell wool products from sheep who had been mulesed. Mulesing, a practice developed by Australian sheep farmers to prevent maggot infestation, involves the un-anesthetized surgical removal of skin around a sheep’s backside, which can often cause the animal great pain. PETA opposes the practice of mulesing and claims that more humane alternatives are available, such as breech clips.
In a press statement released Wednesday, H&M said, “[We] will immediately stop the production of all angora products until we have secured that our strict Product Policy is being followed. H&M doesn’t accept that animals are treated badly. We only allow products made of angora hair from farms with good animal husbandry.”
However, PETA spokesperson Ben Williamson told CNN that there was no humane method of removing angora rabbit fur. Rabbits who have their fur cut, rather than plucked, usually have their legs bound together with rope, and are stretched out on a board or suspended in the air. He insisted that the only solution was for retailers to “turn their backs on angora.”
PETA’s undercover video, which shows live angora rabbits having their fur plucked, can be seen here. (Please note: The video is very graphic and viewer discretion advised.)
Image Source: Steven Depolo
The article states, “Rabbits who have their fur cut, rather than plucked, usually have their legs bound together with rope, and are stretched out on a board or suspended in the air.” While this may be the case for some commercial Angora farms, those of us who keep Angoras as companion animals do not use that method. We simply let the rabbits sit naturally and comfortably on our laps while we carefully hand shear their fiber.