Gap’s Sales of Angora Wool Face Challenge From PETA

Executives at Annual Meeting to Be Confronted With Questions Over Company’s Refusal to Ban Fur Ripped Out of Live Rabbits’ Bodies

For Immediate Release:
May 19, 2014

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Despite learning from PETA that rabbits used for angora production are tied down and have the fur ripped out of their bodies while they scream in terror and pain, Gap Inc. has failed to join the dozens of retailers that have permanently banned products containing angora wool. So at Gap’s annual meeting in San Francisco on May 20, the company will have to respond after a PETA representative asks why it’s still selling angora on its Gap, Old Navy, and Athleta websites:

When:   Tuesday, May 20, 10 a.m.

Where:  Gap Inc. headquarters, 2 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94105

“Customers are horrified to discover that an ‘angora’ label means that sensitive rabbits had the fur painfully ripped out of their skin, and that’s why dozens of retailers around the world took immediate action to ban angora wool permanently,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Gap to stop dragging its feet, stop selling angora, and agree never to sell it again.”

PETA Asia’s undercover investigation of 10 angora rabbit farms in China—which is the source of 90 percent of the world’s angora—revealed that after rabbits’ fur is ripped out of their skin, the animals 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 off their bodies.

Top retailers that have permanently banned angora products include Ann Inc., Anthropologie, Forever 21, Limited Brands, H&M, Express, Lands’ End, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Topshop, Marks and Spencer, and dozens of others.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.