Protesters Descend On Benetton With 'United Colors Of Cruelty' Banner

PETA Calls for an End to Angora Sales With a Twist on Retailer's Ad Campaign

London – PETA supporters – dressed in classic multi-coloured Benetton-style T-shirts – put a new twist on the retail giant's famous "United Colors" campaign today as they converged outside Benetton's Oxford Street shop with "bloody rabbits" in tow. The protesters reminded would-be shoppers that Benetton's continued sale of angora supports an industry that subjects sensitive rabbits to painful shearing - or having the fur ripped from their bodies.

"PETA is taking the cruelty sendured by rabbits abused by the angora industry straight to Benetton's doorstep", says PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi. "We're calling on company officials to do the right thing for animals and their consumers by following in the footsteps of over 70 of their forward-thinking competitors and dropping these items for good."

As revealed by PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to wear" – in its recent exposé, rabbits used for angora scream in pain as their fur is ripped out or sheared. Many are 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.

Photos from the protest are available here, here, here and here. Photos from Rex Features available here.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.