Angora rabbits: new images, and revelations from One Voice on the INRA shadow report
One Voice revealed in 2016 the
methods used for obtaining the very soft angora hair in French farms.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food at the time had turned a deaf
ear to the demands of the association One Voice, saying that they
were relying on an expert report from the National Institute of
Agronomic Research (INRA). One Voice’s request for access to this
report reveals that it does not exist. In 2018, for rabbits, nothing
has changed in the farms.
In
2016, One Voice revealed, following its six-month exposure of six
French Angora rabbit farms, the suffering that these animals go
through during hair removal.
Several
times a year for many years now, for the “needs” of the
textile industry, these rabbits suffer a cruel fate: they are
stretched out and tied to a table by the legs, their hairs are torn
out by hand, without anaesthetic. The rabbits scream with terror and
pain during the session.
For
the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, “the hair combing method,
validated by INRA, if done in the right conditions, cannot be equated
to abuse“.
One
Voice filed a request for access to the Commission for Access to
Administrative Documents (CADA) to obtain this INRA report about
harvesting angora rabbit hair of which the Ministry relied on to make
its decisions on methods used for obtaining angora. The ministry was
unable to provide the INRA’s report to CADA. And for good reason:
this report does not exist1 !
One
Voice has received new images of these Angora rabbits filmed this
year in one of these same farms. Nothing has changed.
These
animals still live in tiny cages, without protection from the cold.
Some rabbits are known to have died of thermal shock and stress due
to hair removal.
The
2016 investigation revealed that rabbits are often depilated in front
of the cages of their congeners. Cries of pain can add to the stress
for those whose are waiting their turn. The operation of pulling the
hair out is so brutal that it happens that the skin tears, where it
is most fragile, near the genitals.
The complaint of One Voice for
acts of cruelty is still ongoing against the main French breeder.
1 In annex, letters from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and CADA
