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
