Breaking: PETA ‘Model’ Leads Anti–Animal Skins Disruption of Burberry Fashion Show
Breaking: PETA ‘Model’ Leads Anti–Animal Skins Disruption of Burberry Fashion Show
London – Today, a PETA supporter posing as a model stormed the runway of the Burberry fashion show in Highbury Fields, brandishing a sign that proclaimed, “Burberry: Animals Are Not Clothing.” See video footage of the runway takeover here.
“Every archaic item made of animal skins represents the pain and suffering of vulnerable individuals who don’t deserve to be mutilated for clothing and accessories any more than you or I do,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner. “PETA took over Burberry’s runway to call on the brand to do the right thing and leave animals out of its collections as well as to remind consumers that animals are not ours to wear.”
The action follows damning PETA Asia investigations into farms and slaughterhouses linked to the misleadingly named Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) and Responsible Down Standard (RDS), which are touted by the fashion house in its responsible sourcing policy. Burberry claims it doesn’t knowingly use materials that “may inflict any harm to animal welfare”, yet terrified goats on SFA-certified cashmere farms screamed in pain as workers pulled out their hair with sharp metal combs and left them with gaping wounds. Ducks with bloody injuries were kept in dirty, dark sheds, and geese shrieked as a worker repeatedly hacked at their necks with a blunt axe before eventually decapitating them. Their feathers were later sold as RDS-certified. In July, PETA US – a Burberry shareholder – attended the company’s annual meeting in London to push for cashmere and feather bans, yet the brand has since taken no action.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – notes that Burberry has already banned the use of fur, angora, and exotic skins and urges it to take the next compassionate step by dropping all animal-derived materials, including wool and leather, from its collections in favour of high-quality, luxury vegan fabrics.
PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Lucy Watson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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