Groupe Dynamite Blasts Angora Wool After Explosive PETA Campaign

Following Contact From More Than 20,000 Kind Consumers, Company Pledges to Stop Selling Items Made With Angora Wool

For Immediate Release:
April 6, 2016

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

In a single day, 24,260 supporters of PETA and its youth division, peta2, called on Groupe Dynamite—a teen clothing retailer with more than 300 locations in Canada, the U.S., and other countries—to ban angora products. Just 24 hours later, the company responded and has since agreed to remove the rabbit-derived wool from its shelves, telling PETA, “Groupe Dynamite cannot and will not support the inhumane treatment of animals. It is with great pleasure that I can confirm to you that Groupe Dynamite will not be using angora wool in its future designs.”

Groupe Dynamite joins 120 retailers—including H&M, Forever 21, Gap Inc., Anthropologie, and ASOS—that have committed not to sell angora products after learning from PETA that rabbits on angora farms scream out in pain as the fur is torn from their skin.

“PETA supporters blew up Groupe Dynamite’s e-mail accounts, and the company quickly agreed to start the spring with a bang by ensuring that bunnies won’t be tormented for its products,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “With the compassionate fashion movement loud and booming, it would be wise for other retailers to follow suit in realizing that angora is dead.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—has revealed that workers on angora farms violently tear fur from rabbits’ skin, while other rabbits are cut or sheared and invariably wounded by sharp tools as they struggle to escape. In photos and video footage released by PETA, angora farms deemed “humane” by third-party auditors denied rabbits basic veterinary care and relief from heat in excess of 100 degrees, and the animals also suffered from eye infections, inner-ear infections, and respiratory diseases.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.