Fur, wool, leather, down and silk production all result in harm to various animals. Peta has been campaigning since 1980 to end animal suffering and defend the rights of all animals.
Recently, we came across a rather disturbing video of Angora rabbits having fur literally ripped off their shivering bodies. Angoras are one of the oldest breeds of domestic rabbit, originating from Turkey and introduced to the rest of Europe by the end of the 18th century, and to the United States by the 20th century. These rabbits are now bred for their long and soft hairs, with the majority of fur farms in China.

Animals live in confined, cramped cages before they’re often drowned, beaten, strangled, sometimes electrocuted or even skinned alive for fur coats, collars, cuffs, jackets, handbags, the list goes on.

Fashion designers across the world have gone cruelty-free. Notably, Stella McCartney, who is an outspoken PETA supporter, ensuring that she never works with fur or leather, only using responsible materials. As well as Vivienne Westwood, a longtime vegetarian who learnt of the horrid fur trade through PETA, alongside, Tommy Hilfiger who stopped using fur after meeting PETA vice president at a wedding in 2007, and Calvin Klein announced in 1994 that he would no longer use fur. Hopefully, we will start to see the trend grow, and more companies follow suit.

“Most recently, the world’s largest clothing retailer, Inditex (who owns Zara), permanently banned angora products from its clothing lines, then donated 20,000 brand-new angora garments from previous seasons to Syrian refugees in Lebanon.”

Around 90% of the world’s angora comes from China, often using the place of assembly as the product ‘origin’, to divert attention from the cruelty suffered. There are no laws against the abuse of rabbits on farms in China.

Angora rabbits are highly sensitive, social animals, they’re seen lying motionless on the floor of filthy cages after their fur has been ripped from them while they scream in pain. If they survive the ordeal, the process is repeated every three months once their fur has grown back, this goes on for 2-5 years before they’re finally killed and replaced with new rabbits.

On top of this abhorrent practice, production of animal fur coats, from farmed animals takes more than 15 times as much energy as what is needed to produce a faux-fur coat.

So what’s the point?

We’ve chosen PETA for our June Charitea, specifically the Angora campaign, we hope this violence toward rabbits ends soon.

With Love,

Your Tea Charitea program