Inditex Confirms End of Sales of Angora Wool Products After Talks With PETA

Retail Giant to Donate Almost $900K Worth of Remaining Stock to Syrian Refugees

For Immediate Release:
February 9, 2015

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Following discussions with PETA and after a recent groundbreaking exposé revealed that live rabbits’ fur is ripped out of their skin on angora farms, the world’s largest clothing retailer, Inditex, agreed to a permanent ban on angora wool. In an unprecedented move, the Spanish multinational clothing company, which owns brands such as Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, and Bershka, will also donate 20,000 brand-new angora wool garments manufactured in previous seasons (with a retail value of approximately $878,000) to Syrian refugees in Lebanon through the charity Life for Relief and Development, rather than profiting from the garments.

“Thanks to Inditex’s massive donation, PETA is able to send a vital message about compassion for animals this winter—that only people desperately lacking basic necessities have any excuse for wearing fur that is ripped out of live animals’ bodies,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “We’re calling on all remaining retailers still touting these products of rabbit torture to follow quickly in the footsteps of Inditex and others, or else they’ll watch their customers, wallet in hand, walk out the door.”

“Thanks to PETA and Inditex—this generous donation goes a long way to help ease the suffering of the refugees who have lost so much,” says Life for Relief and Development’s chief operating officer, Mohammed Alomari.

As revealed by PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”— in its exposé of a PETA Asia investigation, some rabbits used for angora scream in pain as their fur is ripped out, while others are cut or sheared and invariably wounded by the sharp tools as they struggle desperately to escape. In addition, the angora farming industry condemns these intelligent, social animals to years of isolation in small, filthy wire cages.

Inditex joins more than 70 top brands and retailers—including French Connection, ASOS, Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney, and Tommy Hilfiger—that have permanently banned angora wool as a result of PETA Asia’s investigation.

For a list of retailers that have ceased angora sales, please click here, or visit PETA.org for more information.