Campaigners call on brand to ditch cruelly obtained reptile skins
PETA supporters holding signs reading, “Gucci: Ban Wild-Animal Skins,” crashed the grand opening of Gucci’s new Multrees Walk store yesterday to urge the luxury retailer to stop using the skins of tormented snakes and other wildlife in its collections.
Video footage of the disruption is available here.
“Every wild animal-skin accessory, from wallets and bags to belts and watch straps, comes from a terrified animal who was beaten, tortured, and skinned – sometimes while still conscious,” says PETA Vice President Mimi Bekhechi, who is from Edinburgh.
“PETA is calling on Gucci to do right by animals by shedding reptile and other ‘exotic’ skins.”
A recent PETA exposé of python farms in Thailand that supply Gucci’s owner, Kering, revealed workers pinning struggling pythons down by the neck, bashing them on the head with a hammer, punching metal hooks through their heads, and inflating their bodies with water – even as the animals continued to move.
PETA entities have also documented how for the fashion industry, workers hack at crocodiles’ necks and shove a metal rod down their spine, chop off conscious lizards’ heads with machetes, and electrically stun ostriches before slitting their throats in full view of their terrified flockmates.
A growing number of fashion brands have dropped wild-animal skins – including Burberry, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Mulberry, Victoria Beckham and Vivienne Westwood – and many more are meeting the demand for sustainable animal-friendly products by offering vegan leather options made from a wide range of innovative materials such as mushrooms, apples, corn, and cacti.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
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