Marks & Spencer joins boycott of angora products
Marks & Spencer has become the latest retailer to announce that it will stop selling products containing angora wool after the PETA animal rights charity alleged cruelty in the fur extraction process in China.
The retailer has also updated its animal welfare policy to remove all angora from its supply chain.
The decision means that all production of M&S products containing angora has stopped and stores will no longer have any stock from April next year.
Last month PETA released a video which showed workers in China violently ripping the fur out of rabbits’ skin as the animals screamed in pain. Yesterday campaigners from the charity converged on London’s West End dressed as giant rabbits to ask Christmas shoppers not to buy angora wool.
Marks & Spencer said that when concerns were raised by customers about the production of the wool, it conducted additional visits to the farms its suppliers bought from. However, no evidence was found of the live plucking or tethering of rabbits or that the retailer’s animal welfare policy had been flouted.
Other retailers who have decided to suspend ordering more products containing angora include Arcadia Group, Asos, Next, Primark, New Look and Ted Baker.
