"Combing" or "depilation" is a painful practice for rabbits, which is a gross understatement. This operation of hair removal is carried out while they are totally conscious, to pluck their entire body hair by handles, four times a year, for years to come. To do this, they are sometimes held motionless, squeezed between the farmer’s legs, sometimes tied to a board in painful, stretched out positions. The skin is often torn off along with the hair, especially around the eyes and genitals, where it is the thinnest and most fragile. The howls of the rabbits pierce the eardrums, who do not use their voice to communicate except in case of great danger.
Proof of this is in our 2016 undercover survey which was carried out involving several farms, and it was update in 2018 with images from a whistle-blower. Nothing had changed two years after the scandal was unearthed by One Voice and widely publicized.
The females used as reproducers, sexing at just a few weeks old, rabbits who die from the cold due to their fragility at low temperature, the fast which is imposed several days before the forced hair removal, all these "secondary" elements combine and go towards the sense of stopping this barbaric practice.
The association therefore challenged the Ministry of Agriculture and then made this appeal following its silence. The status quo is not acceptable for Angora rabbits.
At
a time when a new farm is in danger of opening, subsidized by the
Somme department and without a preliminary investigation, we protest
against the fact that France persists in supporting such industries
based on animal suffering.
The
French have expressed very clearly their desire to live in a society
in which ecology is central, and where animals are respected. The
government must take the measure of its decisions.
Muriel Arnal says:
Comments 62
GIGI | Tuesday 02 July 2019
wallace | Friday 28 June 2019
Nicky | Friday 28 June 2019
mélodie | Thursday 27 June 2019