PETA’s Campaign Urging Gucci to Drop Wildlife Skins
Following a PETA Asia investigation into an Indonesian abattoir that supplies Gucci, PETA launched a campaign calling on the brand to stop using wild-animal skins in their collections. These are our actions so far:
Update (17 July 2025): Will Demna Pull Gucci Out of the Past? PETA Asks Designer to Ban Wild-Animal Skins
As Demna prepares to take the helm at Gucci as the luxury brand’s new artistic director, PETA has launched a video appeal and sent a letter to the fashion maverick, thanking him for championing animal-free materials and banning the use of wild-animal skins during his tenure at Balenciaga – and encouraging him to do the same at Gucci.
Fashion is about innovation, yet Gucci has remained stuck in the dark ages, using the sliced-off skin of tormented wild animals for its collections. Demna is a trailblazer, and PETA is appealing to him to give Gucci the reset it needs by switching to luxurious, animal-friendly vegan materials that are the future of fashion.
Update (28 January 2025): Screaming ‘Python’ ‘Bashed’ with Hammer Outside Gucci Store
Ahead of Chinese New Year, PETA supporters, one dressed as a snake and another as a python farm worker, reenacted the slaughter of pythons used for their skins outside London’s New Bond Street Gucci store. Since 2025 is the year of the snake, this action was part of PETA’s campaign urging Kering to make this the year for the snake and stop selling anything produced from the torture and slaughter of pythons or other wild animals.
Update (20 September 2024): Double Protest Against Gucci During Milan Fashion Week
A year after the infamous Gucci catwalk crash of 2023, PETA kept the pressure on the brand by taking double action on the day of its Milan Fashion Week show.
First, protesters caused chaos at the grand opening of Gucci’s new Multrees Walk in Edinburgh.
Meanwhile, in Italy, just outside Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2025 Milan Fashion Week show entrance, PETA supporters displayed giant signs depicting François-Henri Pinault – the CEO of Gucci’s parent company, Kering – as Pinocchio in reference to Pinault’s unkept promise to “collaborate” with PETA to end the violent slaughter of pythons for Gucci’s collections.
Original blog (22 September 2023):
Today, as Gucci held its much-anticipated Milan Fashion Week show – presenting the first collection from new creative director Sabato De Sarno – a PETA supporter posing as a model stormed the runway, brandishing a sign that proclaimed, “Gucci: Ban Exotic Skins.”
See how it unfolded, below.
This action follows runway takeovers by PETA entities at shows during fashion weeks earlier this month in London and New York.
Gucci: It’s Time to Drop Croc
These protests follow a PETA Asia investigation into an Indonesian abattoir that supplies Gucci, which revealed workers bashing lizards in the head with machetes and hacking at their necks in botched decapitation attempts.
This shocking investigation footage directly contradicts claims by Gucci’s parent company, Kering, that it is committed to “implementing and verifying the highest standards of animal welfare across [its] supply chains”, as well as its animal welfare guidelines, which call for “humane handling at end of life”.
Inflated and Skinned Alive
PETA Asia has also documented that in the exotic-skins industry, crocodiles’ necks are hacked open and they are killed by metal rods being shoved down their spines. Snakes are pumped full of water to loosen their skin, which is often peeled off while they’re still conscious.
Filthy Fashion Risks All Our Futures
Conservation experts have cautioned that practices in the exotic-skins industry increase the risk of future epidemics and pandemics, as the wild animals it exploits are typically confined to and slaughtered in filthy conditions resembling those found at wet markets. This creates environments favourable to the emergence of deadly pathogens.
Stop Stealing Skins!
The future of fashion is animal-free, and many luxury designers such as Mulberry, Chanel, Victoria Beckham, Burberry, and Paul Smith have already banned the use of exotic skins. Forward thinking companies are meeting the demand for sustainable, animal-friendly products by offering vegan leather options made from pineapple leaves, mushrooms, apples, cacti, and more.
Lizards, crocodiles, and snakes are intelligent animals who deserve compassion, not to be mutilated for clothing and accessories. Take action today by calling on Gucci to drop these cruelly obtained materials and remind the company that animals are not ours to wear:
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