The Animal Cruelty Behind The Angora Sweater
What Is Angora Wool?
Angora wool, fibre or fur refers to the natural coat that is grown by the angora rabbit - a large, extremely fluffy bunny which makes a wonderful pet due to the fact they adore human closeness and can be easily tamed (they are very intelligent and great with kids!)
The wool is unbelievably fine, soft and snuggly and I always wanted a sweater made from it - until I found out very recently how they obtain the fur from the rabbit...
I promise not to include photos that are disturbing because frankly I believe that this is upsetting enough without graphic images. I want people to be aware of the completely barbaric way the fur is pulled from living rabbits who have their feet tied together before being stretched out and plucked alive once every 3 or 4 months for the 4 years of their short, tragic lives.
They spend their lives in bare steel cages which are cold and offer no protection or warmth. The rabbits are kept in individual cages even though anyone who cares for rabbits could tell you they need to live in pairs to be happy.
They go through this agonising process so often so the angora farm owners can make money. How can we stop them? Stop buying cheap angora products or even better - all angora products unless you know for sure that the fur was groomed from the animal in a humane way.
Awareness Poll
Did You Know That Angora Fur Was Removed This Way?
How Would You Keep So Much Fur Clean?
The sad fact is in a loving and responsible home an angora rabbit should be kept well groomed to prevent it overheating or ingesting hair which can then cause major health concerns - not to mention to stop the fur matting, tangling and becoming filthy!
But most of these rabbits are not in loving homes, they are in bare steel cages which are not lined with ANYTHING to ensure their coats are as clean as possible. Their feet become sore and painful but it doesn't matter to the owners of most Chinese angora farms because the feet are not a body part that need to be taken care of.
The only thing that matters is the dollars that the trade brings in and therefore the one part of the rabbit that needs to look good is the fur.
A Recently Plucked Rabbit In Shock
Did You Know?
90% of angora hair comes from China where this horrific method of extraction is known to be common. The other 10% comes mostly from Chile, Europe and the United Stated of America.
If You Care
On a human level I want to ask you - if you are reading this, please don't shake it off and ignore what I am putting to you. I read this in a news article and I have sworn to myself to never EVER buy angora products know I know where the majority of the wool comes from.
It is a natural human response to want to think that this doesn't happen every day and there are loads of angora farms out there that are careful in removing the fur and use humane, pain-free methods such as shearing or gentle grooming, but to be honest I don't believe that many of these places really do exist. People want products for less money and paying less money means that the money is going into places that simply do not care about animal welfare.
If you are thinking that after the years of agony for these rabbits comes a happy retirement then I am sorry to tell you that their throats are slit, they are skinned and sold for meat.
There is no happy ending for these animals unless we can start saying no to angora wool products.
Everyone has their individual choices to make and I am personally choosing to opt out of this brutality. If you want to do more than that then spread the word! I don't think there are many people out there who would wear fur that was sourced in such an appalling way.
