BCBG’s Sales of Chinese Raccoon Dog Fur and Angora Wool Prompt PETA Video Blast

PETA Calls On Holiday Shoppers to Skip BCBG Max Azria as Long as Vile Products Are on the Racks

For Immediate Release:
November 11, 2014

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

PETA recently discovered that BCBG Max Azria is selling fur from Asiatic raccoon dogs—who are often beaten and even skinned alive—as well as clothes made from angora wool, which often comes from live rabbits who have their fur ripped out of them as they scream in pain on farms in China, where there are no penalties for abusing animals used and killed for fur. In response, PETA is rushing out a graphic new video today calling on holiday shoppers to bypass BCBG until the chain stops selling fur and angora wool.

“Shoppers will be shocked to the core to see in PETA’s video that BCBG supports an industry that rips the fur out of screaming rabbits and skins animals alive for their fur,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Kind consumers have prompted dozens of major retailers to take fur and angora wool off their shelves, and BCBG should do the same.”

The video includes footage taken on angora rabbit farms in China—the source of 90 percent of the angora sold around the world—in which workers tie the gentle animals down and rip the fur out of their skin, leaving behind bloody wounds. Footage from China also shows raccoon dogs slammed to the ground and beaten before their skin is peeled off. One animal even lifts his head and blinks after his skin has been removed.

PETA is asking its members and supporters to share the new video on their social-media pages and to visit PETA.org to send a letter calling on BCBG to join the dozens of top retailers—including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Inditex, Limited Brands, H&M, Gap Inc., and Victoria’s Secret—that have completely banned fur and angora wool.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.