Hopping-Mad ‘Rabbits’ Will Descend On Hartford to Blast Angora Fur Trade

PETA to Screen Shocking New Video of Animals Screaming in Pain as the Fur Is Ripped From Their Bodies

For Immediate Release:
November 20, 2013

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Accompanied by five activists dressed as rabbits, PETA members will converge in downtown Hartford on Thursday to ask holiday shoppers never to buy angora or any other kind of fur. The group will also screen just-released video footage from PETA Asia’s undercover investigation of 10 angora rabbit farms in China.

When:           Thursday, November 21, 12 noon

Where:          Intersection of Pratt and Trumbull streets, Hartford

China—where there are no penalties for animal abuse on rabbit farms—is the source of 90 percent of the world’s angora. The video reveals workers violently ripping the fur out of rabbits’ skin as the animals scream in pain. After their fur is removed, the rabbits are left in shock, able only to lie motionless inside their tiny, filthy cages. After they endure this torment every three months for two to five years, their throats are cut and the skin is ripped from their bodies.

“PETA is appealing to shoppers this holiday season,” says Ashley Byrne, PETA’s skins campaign specialist. “Please take the time to read the label on that sweater or scarf. If it says ‘angora,’ remember the gentle rabbits whose fur was cruelly ripped out of their skin—and leave the item on the rack.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.