Secret Kangol Memo to ‘Do Nothing’ About Cruel Angora Wool Sales Accidentally Sent to PETA
For Immediate Release:
December 22, 2025
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
It’s the animal rights equivalent of The Atlantic reporter being invited to Secretary Hegseth’s Signal chat: Headwear company Kangol’s executives mistakenly included PETA on a “crisis” PR strategy email after PETA showed the company damning new video revealing workers hang rabbits from the ceiling by their legs and strip off their hair with sharp blades, leaving many with bloody wounds—all for angora wool, which Kangol uses. According to the internal email—which the brand quickly but unsuccessfully tried to recall—Kangol said it would “do nothing unless it escalates,” so today, PETA is doing just that: escalating by amping up its campaign that calls on compassionate consumers internationally to get the company to stop selling angora wool.
Just last month, Gwyneth Paltrow tried to follow the same “do nothing” crisis PR strategy when PETA called on her to stop selling angora through her GWYN label at goop, but after public outcry, she quickly pulled it from her website.
“Kangol executives have revealed their shameful plan to ‘do nothing’ for rabbits who are frozen in fear as they are strung up and sliced,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is asking everyone to urge Kangol to stop profiting from cruelty, and ban angora wool, as nearly every other major brand has already done.”
The new footage, obtained by PETA Asia from eight angora rabbit factory farms in China—where most of the world’s angora is sourced—shows workers pulling rabbits out of cages by their ears and throwing them into buckets carried to the shearing area. Rabbits were held in cramped, filthy cages and showed signs of severe psychological distress, such as biting their own bodies and frantically pacing back and forth. The overcrowded, filthy conditions left rabbits susceptible to illness, with some found lying motionless inside cages. Rabbits who survive these extremely stressful conditions are typically killed after two to five years. Workers even sheared the angora from rabbits who had died.
In China, there are no regulations that govern how animals are treated, and no penalties for abusing animals on farms.
More than 425 brands—including Zara, H&M, Gap, Burberry, and Hugo Boss—have banned angora, while exports from China have plummeted by over 80 percent.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
