New Prohibition Means International Fashion Houses Are No Longer Able to Peddle Items Made From Reptile Skin in India!
After hearing from PETA about the extreme suffering of reptiles killed for leather clothing and accessories, Indian officials have issued a notification prohibiting the importation of reptile skins into India as well as the fur of chinchillas, minks, and foxes.
The Indian government is setting an example for other countries to follow. These days, it’s easy to have a look that kills without killing – with fake snake, mock croc, and other designer items that mimic animals’ beauty without harming them. We hope that this move will encourage fashion houses to embrace innovative vegan fabrics and stop peddling items derived from animal suffering.
In December 2016, PETA released a video exposé of crocodile farms in Vietnam – including two that say they supply skins to a tannery owned by Louis Vuitton’s parent company, LVMH, which has not denied the allegations – revealing that reptiles lay motionless inside thousands of tiny concrete cells, some shorter than their own bodies, for 15 months before finally being slaughtered. Others were jam-packed by the dozens into barren concrete pits. At another farm, workers hacked into thrashing crocodiles’ necks and rammed metal rods down their spines as blood poured from the wounds, and one crocodile was shown still moving after being skinned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNtyMEmgNaE?rel=0
In 2015, PETA released another exposé of two factory farms in Zimbabwe and one in the US state of Texas that supply crocodile and alligator skins to Hermès-owned tanneries. On the Texas farm, the necks of reptiles were sawed open – and some animals still moved minutes after they had been attacked with a knife or box cutter in a crude effort to slaughter them.
Other video exposés released by PETA’s international affiliates have shown that snakes are commonly nailed to trees and that their bodies are cut open from one end to the other as they’re skinned alive, in the belief that live flaying keeps the skins supple. Their mutilated bodies are then discarded, but because of their slow metabolism, it can take hours for them to die. Lizards are often decapitated, and some writhe in agony as their skin is torn off them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeklO6be3_o?rel=0
You Can Help
India’s prohibition is good news for crocodiles, snakes, and other animals, but reptiles who are farmed and killed for their skins suffer all over the world.
Video footage from reptile farms around the world tells the same miserable story: grim, close confinement and a violent death. Please refuse to support this cruelty – don’t ever buy or wear items made from exotic skins. And take a moment to urge luxury fashion company LVMH to shed exotic skins from Louis Vuitton and all its other brands.
