Photo Op: ‘Bloody’ Crocodile to Call Out Cruel Skin Sales at Hermès Grand Opening in Nashville
For Immediate Release:
October 16, 2025
Contact:
Hannah Nelson 202-483-7382
Shoppers at the grand opening of the first Hermès store in Nashville will be met with a shocking sight on Saturday, as a PETA supporter body-painted to look like a crocodile with a slashed throat will lie “dead” outside its doors to warn potential customers about the suffering of crocodiles and other animals whose skin is stolen for bags, watchbands, and more.
“Behind Hermès’ fleeting fashions are terrified animals who were housed in filth and hacked to pieces just to make handbags,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges Hermès to leave these cruel trends in the past and switch to the luxurious vegan fashions today’s consumers demand.”
Where: 510 Houston St., Nashville
When: Saturday, October 18, 10:30 a.m.
Why: Crocodiles like those killed to make Hermès handbags are doting parents—mother crocodiles hear their babies chirping while in their eggs and help them work their way out, then gently carry the babies in their mouths to protect them, and fathers have been observed helping out with hatchling care too. PETA entities have documented how the fashion industry chops off conscious lizards’ heads with machetes, hacks at crocodiles’ necks and shoves metal rods down their spines, and bashes snakes in the head with hammers and pumps them full of water to loosen their skin before it’s peeled off—often while they’re still conscious.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
