You may’ve already seen PETA’s horrific video of live Angora rabbits being plucked in China (warning this video is very graphic).
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The abominable treatment of these rabbits has caused shockwaves around the world and PETA has called on retailers and consumers to stop buying Angora products.
New Zealand has got something of a reputation for its sheep and wool industry so we wondered how humane its treatment of rabbits was. Animal welfare is sometimes not a priority in this country particularly with regard to the indiscriminate use of the inhuman pesticide 1080, vivisection, sow crates, factory farmed cows, male calves being battered to death at birth and dogs used to test the effects of synthetic cannabis, and that’s just skimming the surface.
Below are some videos of rabbit being shearing in front of a live audience in New Zealand.
Advisory – the rabbits are tied down, stretched to ‘smooth out the wrinkles’ and rotated on their backs and twisted before being subjected to shearing with a mechanical sheep clippers. Some may find these videos distressing, yet this practice is regarded as humane in New Zealand.
These rabbits are kept in big barns and runs 20kms away from the glow worm cave in Waitomo. In 2011 they had 350 of this breed kept for commercial fibre production.
“Well, Waitomo Caves could well be the rabbit shearing capital of the world!” source
Quite possibly. One person said this company charges $75, yes $75, to shear a rabbit in this way.
We’d like to know how many of the parents in the Shearing Shed’s audience would be happy if their childrens’ hair was cut like this. Would they take photographs and be encouraged to think it humorous ?
Waitomo | New Zealand :: Angora Rabbit Shearing from The Bettendorfs on Vimeo.
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Comment from the Trademe.co.nz forum (link)
Apparently they shear them in NZ as well , should be banned here as well .
https://e2nz.org/Wow I am so lucky that this link was posted as I was going to pay $75 per rabbit to have them shorn at that place in Waitomo (I am up in Auckland) thinking they did it with the utter most respect and dignity. Now I just brush my two every day and trim any matts out, so sad to see others suffering.
Perhaps it is time to stop all large scale commerical Angora wool production, can it ever be ethical? Their fur is not ours to wear.
How to clip a rabbit humanely
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Related
dressed up road kill. Its ok, “they do it to humans too”
Hello possums! New Zealand schoolchildren encouraged to dress up DEAD animals in bizarre competition: UK Daily Mail.
…The school has been criticised for encouraging children to dress up dead animals for the day, which also featured a wild pig hunt.
It has sparked horror with animal welfare groups but teachers defended the contest as ‘lots of fun’ which helped raise more than £4,000 for the school.
Principal Pauline Sutton told the Taranaki Daily News: ‘There was an amazing crowd and it was lots of fun. Animals aren’t the only species who are dressed up after they die. We do it to humans too.’
Related articles
- Asos bans angora as agony of rabbits plucked alive is revealed in shocking video (thisismoney.co.uk)
- Zara Urged To Drop Orders For Angora Rabbit Fur Following Claims Of Animal Torture (businessinsider.com)
- Horrific video showing live rabbits having fur ripped out sparks ban on sale of angora (mirror.co.uk)
- Can angora production ever be ethical? (theguardian.com)
- Stella McCartney and other brands pull angora products after viral video (myfashionlife.com)
- British stores suspend orders for super fluffy angora wool products after horrifying video reveals cruel techniques used to skin the rabbits (thisismoney.co.uk)
- Clothing brands agree to stop selling ‘cruel’ angora wool after graphic videos showing its manufacturing process surface (metro.co.uk)
E2NZ.org 
So what should they do? Did you read the owners explanation? Should she just go and kill them all then and put them out of their misery. It’s 250 years of breeding by “OTHER” humans that has caused them to not shed their coat and not be able to live outside and fend for themselves. This person doesn’t make money off the animals, she is simply keeping them alive, they are and endangered species! She’s not “creaming the profits” off an industry that doesn’t exist in NZ. It’s costing her $1000’s to keep them alive! What do you think should be done with these animals, it’s not their fault they’re like this and it’s not her fault either!
Are you for real? If there wasn’t a signficant profit to be made from angora wool why bother breeding them and charging $75 a time for shearing them? why hasn’t the Angroa rabbit been allowed to die out naturally? stopping rabbits from replicating isn’t exactly rocket science.
Ethical, humane treatment would call for the rabbit to be groomed gently by hand, not strapped to a table and shorn with mechanical clippers intended for sheep.
What should be done with these animals? Take them out of their cages and find each one a loving home.
Amen Admin I could not have said it better myself.
To prospective migrants, Cynthia illustrates the credulity of many Kiwis who believe all sorts of ridiculous excuses to excuse the inexcusable. She also illustrates the defensiveness/passive aggressiveness of many Kiwis. This combined with her poor education and reasoning skills pose a toxic danger to sensible migrants and their families.
To those glass half full types, Cynthia is not the exception to the rule. She is the rule.
SFNZ, there’s a few people in New Zealand that could do with a good dagging. Those that abuse and maltreat animals in the pursuit of profit should be at the head of the queue.
(ref. the link in the comment above about dagged Angora rabbits being kept in suspended cages so as to keep them ventilated and free of their own excrement – absolutely disgusting and barbaric).
Yes, Cynthia, it’s called ‘factory farming’.
Please visit this link and read the article, then read the last comment left by the new owner of these rabbits, she explains why this is infact NOT cruel for this particular breed of rabbit!!!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/cutestuff/8837791/Sheer-cuteness-Adorable-Angoras
PR hype and a fluff piece.
!!!WTF?!!
Show some common sense Cynthia.
Please.
Cynthia’s comments are redolent of the sort of rubbish justifications that people used to justify slavery. “Hey, the slaves are better off living in bondage because they would not know how to look after themselves, so we will work them and cream the profits made from their labour in the fields for their own good.”
People throughout the world are stupid, but I have never met as many credulous knaves as I encountered in New Zealand. Only New Zealanders can believe the ridiculous justifications that the media, government, and education system spoon-feed them. “The Christchurch disaster is without precedent, so it’s ok that most insurance claims remain unsettled after over three years” or “House prices in Auckland are in line with what people pay overseas for similar houses” or “We pay high costs for power because our energy is clean and green and we have a small population” or “Our scenery is better than everywhere else in the world”.
New Zealanders are unusually adept at concocting absurd rationalisations to excuse the inexcusable. Maybe this is a coping mechanism to deal with the downsides of living in New Zealand or a symptom of the widespread pathology afflicting a significant number of New Zealanders.
What astounds me most is how smug and conceited most Kiwis are. Most of them are useless, yet they think they are clever and carry on with nauseating superciliousness.
Most rational people would conclude that the rabbits’ owner obviously is inhumanely mistreating the animals, but Cynthia gullibly or dishonestly thinks the owner is doing them a favour. I would caution prospective migrants by warning them that Cynthia’s attitude is the rule rather than the exception.
Thanks for sharing this. Animal cruelty is rampant in New Zealand. My Kiwi wife told me of a milker that owned a dog and fed it every three days because the dog did not need the food!
I do not know which is worse, the mistreatment of the animals, or the stupidity and callousness of the people. I often remark that New Zealand is reverse natural selection at work, given that the top 10-20% of every generation leaves and the remaining lower elements remain behind to breed amongst their own kind and produce a dumber, lazier, and more passive race. An evolutionary biologist could do his dissertation on the deleterious effects of negative natural selection in New Zealand.