This sultry snake charmer looked bootiful enough to charm the snakeskin shoes and accessories right off folks outside a Washington, D.C., metro station and convince them to scale up their fashion sense with faux skins.

Since the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority rejected our offer to wrap rubber snakes around subway car poles to convince people who don't like snakes to shed exotic skins, we charmed our way into metro stations across the country for the sake of snakes.

At least one patron got all rattled by the display.

Following discussions with PETA, PUMA—one of the world's largest designers and developers of sports footwear, apparel, and accessories—has pledged never to use animal fur, wool that comes from mulesed (i.e., mutilated) Australian sheep, or exotic-animal skins. How appropriate that a company named after one of nature's most beautiful animals would help protect so many others!

Photo: Nick Saglimbeni for SlickForceStudio|Hair and makeup: Glenn Nutley for Celestine Agency|Body art: Nelly Rechhia for Aim Artists

For help in making animal-friendly choices, check out PETA's cruelty-free shopping guide.

Are you ready for (cue ominous music) … Snakes on a Train?

No, it's not the sequel to that (in)famous Samuel L. Jackson film—although it is the title of a straight-to-video rip-off. In this case, it's a new PETA campaign that is sure to get some attention for reptiles killed for their skins.

What Are Your Hands Holding?

PETA is asking the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) for permission to launch its new "Snakes on a Train" campaign on the T, featuring realistic-looking rubber snakes wrapped around subway poles and handles, as well as a slogan on the windows that reads, "Snakes Make Your Skin Crawl? Shed All Scaly Belts and Bags! Watch Video at PETA.org":

Snakes: (c) iStockphoto.com/Eric Isslee - Train:(c) DDholer

PETA hopes to scare commuters out of their snakeskin boots, shoes, purses, and belts. In order to make snakeskin accessories, these reptiles are nailed to trees or posts and skinned alive. Their mutilated bodies are discarded, and it sometimes takes hours for them to die.

How You Can Help Snakes

If you wouldn't want to hold on to a snake during your commute, why would you want to have their dead flesh wrapped around your waist, feet, or personal belongings? Let's shed exotic skins for good.

Photo Of the Day

Bollywood beauty Dia Mirza put herself in a skinned snake's shoes to ask her fans to walk away from exotic-animal skins.

Photo: Jatin Kampani | Stylist: Theia Tekchananey | Make-up: Nahush Pise | Hair: Shobha Kewal

"[J]ust putting myself in the place of that snake or that crocodile made me feel sick," she said. "How can you wear anything that kills an animal so cruelly to make yourself look good?"

The style that looks good from Bollywood to Boston is kindness. Check out PETA's Polyvore page for oodles of hip, cruelty-free fashions.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

PETA "cops" were out in force at the Sundance Film Festival, making arrests for fashion felonies. Anyone wearing wool, leather, exotic skins, or fur saw the light. A flashing blue one, that is.

The crime: Ripping off an animal

The punishment: A public scolding

The penance: Buying a coat that didn't claim a life

The best show in Vegas last week wasn't in a casino—it was on the sidewalk on Las Vegas Boulevard. Luck was a lady leopard (and a cow and a snake) when PETA's "showgirls" stripped down on The Strip to reveal their animalistic bodypaint.

Crowds flocked to the ladies like they were the hottest blackjack table, posing for pictures and scooping up information about how animals raised or trapped for their skin suffer.

With the flurry of flashbulbs now over and loads of leaflets distributed, it's a safe bet that any animal skins the passersby will be flaunting from now on will be as fake as an Elvis impersonator.

You and animals both win when you choose animal prints, not animal skins.

Reese Witherspoon left many people shell-shocked when she was spotted carrying a reptile handbag. The Legally Blonde star's python-skin purse has been legally banned from being sold in California since 1970.

PETA immediately rushed Reese the video exposé that her Walk the Line co-star Joaquin Phoenix narrated, showing how reptiles used for clothing and accessories have their heads nailed to trees, are often skinned alive, and can languish for days before dying. Reese's camp instantly responded to us, saying that Reese was dismayed to learn that the bag was made of real snakeskin and promised never to carry it again.

Reese said that she was grateful for the information we had sent her, and we were so appreciative that she bagged the bag that we sent her flowers as a thank-you. It's good timing, too: Her upcoming movie This Means War co-stars Laura Vandervoort, who just shot a naked exotic-skins ad for PETA, so now those two can slink down the red carpet together rocking mock croc and fake snake. For a chance to win your own stylin' faux-snakeskin bag from Urban Expressions, click here!

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Toronto Fashion Week is all about the clothes, but one star was there in the flesh—hers. With her naked body painted to resemble a lizard's skin, Laura Vandervoort, of Smallville and V fame, stars in a new ad for PETA (shot by photographer Nick Saglimbeni) that she unveiled at Toronto Fashion Week while asking her fellow Canadians to shed exotic skins from their wardrobes.

Laura first appeared as a reptile in V, but this time around, she reprised her role as a lithe lizard to help protect the animals from being killed for their skins. "Three or four alligators have to die for one purse," she said in an exclusive interview from the photo shoot. "They nail the snake's head to a tree while it is still alive and peel its skin off. Because they are cold-blooded creatures, they take that much longer to die, so they suffer that much longer. … [Y]ou wouldn't skin your dog to wear to an event, to go out on a date, just for a status symbol. So please, have some compassion for animals."

To see behind-the-scenes video footage from Laura's photo shoot and enter to win a faux-snakeskin bag, check out her full PETA feature.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

While fashion designer Victoria Beckham, aka "Posh Spice," has vowed that none of her collections will ever include a stitch of fur, for which we thank and praise her, she has been silent on the subject of whether or not her new handbag collection will contain the skins of crocodiles, snakes, and other reptiles killed for fashion. And with the fashion diva's New York City runway show coming up this weekend, even the New York Daily News called her out for keeping mum on PETA's inquiries.

Alligator:© Dean Perrus/Dreamstime.com, Handle:© Luminis/Dreamstime.com, Zipper:© iStockPhoto.com

In a recent letter to Beckham, PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews described the horrors of the exotic-skins trade as shown in a PETA video narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix and described how farmed reptiles are beaten over the head before being skinned alive. Snakes are either nailed to trees or poles by their heads or have water forced down their throats to loosen their skin before they, too, are skinned alive.

Beckham has stated that her bags adhere to the guidelines set forth by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), but PETA explained that CITES aims only to prevent a species from going extinct and has nothing to do with the atrocious ways in which animals are confined and killed.

Bags, belts, shoes, and watchbands made from high-fashion pleather abound, so there's never been a better time to give leather and exotic-animal skins the boot. In the meantime, we'll keep doing our best to get Posh to dump the croc.

Written by Alisa Mullins

According to a statement on its website, athletic behemoth Adidas has sworn off the skins of exotic animals—including crocodiles, snakes, sharks, and fish—joining compassionate companies such as Nike and Cole Haan, H&M, Overstock.com, and Victoria's Secret that rock the mock croc. Adidas also refuses to use fur or wool from sheep who were mulesed in any of its shoes or clothing. 
 

Like many animals used for their skin, snakes are often skinned alive, sometimes after being nailed to a tree.

 
We applaud Adidas for making great strides for so many animals, and look forward to the day when all its footwear is faux.

Written by Michelle Sherrow