Push for Angora Ban to Head to Farfetch Boardroom

For Immediate Release:
24 September 2019

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

PUSH FOR ANGORA BAN TO HEAD TO FARFETCH BOARDROOM

As a Shareholder, PETA US Will Ask the Online Fashion Platform at Its First AGM to Stop Selling Cruelly Obtained Material

Porto, Portugal – Given that Farfetch is well aware of the extreme cruelty that goes into the angora items sold on its website, will the online fashion platform follow in the footsteps of over 340 designers and retailers, such as Gucci, Burberry, and Selfridges, that have already banned the rabbit-fur yarn? That’s the question that a PETA US representative will ask at the company’s annual meeting in Porto tomorrow.

When:             Wednesday, 25 September, 10 am

Where:           Sheraton Porto Hotel & Spa, R. do Ten. Valadim 146, 4100-476 Porto

“No sensitive living being should be subjected to the suffering that angora rabbits go through when their fur is torn out of their bodies,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is calling on Farfetch to take a stand against suffering by following the lead of many high-end fashion brands and retailers by ending the sale of angora on its websites.”

PETA’s exposé of angora rabbit farms in China – which is the source of 90% of the world’s angora wool – revealed that rabbits, who are highly social animals, were isolated inside tiny cages and that every three months, the terrified animals were stretched across a board or hung from the ceiling while workers ripped their hair out as they screamed in pain. Others are suspended from the ceiling before their fur is cut or shorn, and their delicate skin is cut open by the sharp tools as they struggle desperately to escape.

Last year, after receiving over 100k appeals from supporters of PETA and international affiliates to ban all fur – including angora – Farfetch announced that “products made entirely from furs or made with fur trims” would be banned by 31 December 2019. However, it refuses to confirm whether the ban includes angora, making it one of the last remaining outlets for a dwindling number of designers to sell their cruelly produced wares.

The full question that will be asked by the PETA US representative is available upon request.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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