GALLER | Belangor | 100% Hand-Combed French Angora

Galler Yarns treasured Belangor is donated by French Angora Rabbits who are raised on small breeding farms in France.

French Angora is special because it has more guard hair ration to wool, which allows for more intense and varied colors in the fiber.  These guard hairs provide the distinctive halo that makes the wool so popular in high fashion.

Belangor Rabbits live their entire lives on the farms. They are never sold for meat or other purposes. Those who tend these bunnies are passionately fond of their work and respectful of the health and happiness of their wards.

How is the fiber procured?

The Angora naturally molts every 90 to 100 days. The animal must be manually shed of its fur every molt or it will suffer from Wool Block, a gastric blockage caused by ingestion of their hair.

Removing the loose fur can be incredibly stressful and painful for the animal.  To provide for the comfort and health of the Angora, French breeders rely on the time-honored use of a plant-based depilatory supplement. A natural and harmless food additive, it is given to the rabbits 4 days prior to a grooming. Working with the natural shed cycle, the supplement allows the rabbit to be combed out quickly and easily, with no trauma in any way to its physical or emotional well-being. Once shed, they grow a brand new coat that must be again removed in 90 to 100 days.

Experts consider any hair removal methods that do not use this depilation method to be inhumane. Cutting or shearing requires the rabbit to be forcibly restrained, manipulated and terrorized by the noise of clippers or sight of blades. There is  a constant danger of cutting or scraping the animal’s delicate flesh. Plucking without depilation painfully pulls and tears at their skin.  All these methods cause pure trauma for the Angora Rabbit.

Fabulous yarn is proud to carry Galler Yarns Belangor = Galler is the exclusive distributor of this fine yarn. We support only the humane treatment of animals in the making of Gallers Belangor yarn, and delighted to say that all of their yarns are made with only humaney-produced fiber.

Because the fiber supply is dependent on natural molting and our farm raised bunnies, there are fiber shortages from time to time. Please know that this is a good thing; while other vendors will shear their rabbits mid-cycle – we will not and do not do that. Our rabbits live their lives naturally, not subject to our fashion demands.