PETA’s ‘Bloody Snake’ Urges Prada to Shed Exotic Skins

Fashion lovers hoping to peek inside the iconic Prada store in Milan were left squirming when Italian singer and TV personality Daniela Martani – dressed head to toe in a “snakeskin” ensemble and oozing with “blood” – slithered up to the store entrance.

Rossella Papetti

This gruesome display is PETA’s latest action calling out the luxury brand for selling the skin of snakes, ostriches, crocodiles, lizards, and other animals who were tortured and skinned alive for its bags and other accessories.

“Prada’s shelves are filled with products of animal suffering. Snakes, ostriches, crocodiles, and other wild animals endure a lifetime of misery before they are hacked to bits for clutches or clothes. I’m proud to team up with PETA in calling on Prada to stop peddling purses made of the skin of abused animals.”

– Daniela Martani, Italian singer and TV personality

The Cruelty Behind Prada’s Exotic-Skin Handbags

PETA entities have documented rampant cruelty at abattoirs that supply animal skin to the fashion industry. Workers inflate live snakes with water, bash them with hammers, and cut them with razors; hack at crocodiles’ necks and shove metal rods down their spines; and chop live lizards’ heads off with machetes.

A PETA exposé of the world’s largest ostrich-slaughter companies – including suppliers to Prada – revealed that young birds are crammed onto lorries and hauled to abattoirs, where they are electrically shocked and their throats are slit.

When Will Prada Change?

Ahead of Prada Group’s annual meeting on 24 April, Daniela Martani also posed a question, via video message, to Mrs Miuccia Prada on behalf of PETA US, a shareholder of the company.

Watch the video above, which shows Martani asking the lead designer to explain the “glaring discrepancy” between the company’s ban on animal fur and its use of the skin of animals who were forced to languish at filthy facilities, beaten, and violently slaughtered, often while still conscious. The same question will also be submitted at the annual meeting by a representative of PETA US.

Cacti Leather Is In – Crocodile Skin Is Out

Prada needs to join the growing list of top designers – including Burberry, Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, Jean Paul Gaultier, Altuzarra, Paco Rabanne, Victoria Beckham, and Vivienne Westwood – which have banned the use of the skin of reptiles and other wildlife from their collections.

There is an abundance of vegan leather options made from pineapples, mushrooms, apples, and cacti available, and Prada could easily switch to these or other innovative materials that are better for the planet and kinder to animals.