Although I've read that "fur" rabbits are, to use the French terminology, sacrificed ("l'âge du sacrifice") somewhere around 4 to 5 months, and the Rex du Poitou rabbits are indeed sacrificed at 17 or 18 weeks, the website doesn't seem to discuss fur production anywhere. (Maybe my French has fallen off more badly than I thought....)
Even a venture as humble as rabbit-fur production in the U.S. will have a hard row to hoe. Although the French fashion houses and a few Japanese designers are showing it, there have been two widely publicized incidents in the past 15 years with regard to the Burlington Coat Factory importing coats, jackets, parkas, etc. from Asia which turned out to have dog and/or cat fur on them (rather than the contracted-for and presumably acceptable "coyote" fur).
This article describes the 1998 incident;
this one deals with the mid-2000s incident regarding false labelling of real fur as "faux fur." Another key issue in the mid-2000s was the myriad of cruel ways in which animals were killed to provide their fur for fashion (almost all of these killings took place in China; some
may have taken place in Mongolia or Korea).
note: I am purposely NOT giving details on these, as the links can be followed for more info and I don't want to poison this thread with irrelevant, overly emotional verbal images.
Public outcry on these two incidents was
huge; the Burlington Coat Factory endured boycotts, demonstrations, and much else,
very little of it orchestrated by either the HSUS or PETA. Federal legislation was passed in the wake of the 1998 incident to criminalize the importation of items containing cat and dog fur. It passed almost without opposition, largely because of the status cats and dogs occupy as "pets" aka "companion animals" in the U.S. Rabbits occupy a more nebulous position, but many people
do consider them "companion animals," and indeed they're the third most commonly kept house pet in the U.S. (I have no statistics for Canada; sorry). Any attempt to develop a larger industry in rabbit fur (i.e., beyond craft-fair status) would need to deal with this buzz saw of public opinion and the collective memory of the incidents involving cat/dog fur on coats. The videos of the killings were extremely graphic and upsetting; no matter how carefully, factually, humanely, and "good animal husbandry-wise" the rabbit fur and meat harvesting/sacrifice might be described, there would be people who would simply refuse to believe these honest statements and insist that "horrible methods" (unspecified, no doubt) were being implemented.
I entered this thread for two reasons:
--the word "Rex" was in the title, and I saw three (I think) Rex rabbits in heat/water distress at my first show the other day;
--after I read the enthusiastic posts here from Rex breeders, it seemed to me that folks might be unaware of the dog/cat fur incidents in the U.S. Without the Burlington Coat Factory situations, it probably would have been reasonable to consider some ramping-up of Rex production, but due to the BCF incidents, perhaps much more difficult?
(I note that the eBay items on page 1 of "orylag" are offered from Canada, Australia, Great Britain, etc. Are there any from the U.S.?)
