Italian luxury fashion house Armani announced on Wednesday it would no longer use angora wool starting from next year’s winter season.
Angora wool is made by plucking fur from angora rabbits. Footage from animal welfare organizations revealed that the legs of rabbits are tied while workers rip the hair from their skin.
China has the most angora rabbit farms; they produce 90% of angora wool. Other producers are located in Europe, Chile, India and the United States.
In 2013, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released The Truth behind Angora Fur, showing the cruelty at farms in China. Rabbits screamed and cried in pain as their hairs were being pulled out. After the release, fashion brands like Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein and clothing company H&M banned angora wool.
In 2016, French animal welfare organization One Voice released footage from angora rabbit farms in France, showing the cruelty was the same as in China. One Voice investigators saw rabbits stretched on a wooden table with their front legs and hind legs tied.
“The rabbit is an animal of prey, so always ready to flee. Prisoner on the table, his stress is immense,” One Voice said. “Their fur is then ripped out, by the handful, often with the skin still attached…genitals are no exception.”
Under pressure from animal rights organizations and conscious shoppers, Armani now joins the more than 300 brands that have banned Angora. Last month, PETA announced that luxury e-commerce platform Farfetch would stop selling angora wool by April 2022.
The Animal Reader is a small, independent news platform with daily posts about issues affecting animals.
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