Bodypainted ‘Reptiles’ Protest Louis Vuitton’s ‘Killer’ Exotic-Skin Bags
Wearing little more than green and brown bodypaint, two “bloody” PETA “crocodiles” hung out of an oversized purse that proclaimed, “Louis Vuitton: A Look That Kills,” outside the Louis Vuitton store at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, on Friday.
PETA called on shoppers to skip the retailer’s exotic-skin bags, watchbands, shoes, and other accessories. A PETA video exposé of crocodile farms in Vietnam—including two that say that they have supplied skins to a tannery owned by Louis Vuitton’s parent company, LVMH—revealed that thousands of reptiles lay motionless in tiny concrete cells, some shorter than the length of their bodies. Workers hacked into thrashing crocodiles’ necks and rammed metal rods down their spines as blood poured from the wounds.
Every crocodile-skin handbag represents the hideously gruesome death of a sensitive animal. PETA is hopeful that shoppers will keep reptiles’ blood off their hands by choosing vegan clothing and accessories.
What You Can Do
PETA has exposed cruelty on reptile farms on three continents, and the story is always the same: grim, close confinement and a violent death. Before buying items made with exotic skins like these, please stop and think of the animals they come from and their intense suffering. Don’t support this cruelty with your purchases.
