Hermès Annual Meeting: PETA US Calls On CEO to Take the Group to Visit Exotic-Skins Slaughterhouses
30.04.2024
Paris – “You act like you have nothing to hide. … Prove it.” While many major designers have abandoned exotic skins, Hermès continues to sell items made from these cruelly obtained materials – and PETA entities are keeping up the pressure on the company to stop. Today, during the French fashion house’s annual meeting, a representative of shareholder PETA US shared some of the grim details of exotic-skin production with the gasping audience, followed by a question to CEO Axel Dumas: “When shall we go together to examine the actual conditions in which the animals live and die?”
In response, the CEO declined the invite, while admitting: “I’m not saying there are no problems in the industry”. Dumas went on to gaslight shareholders, referencing CITES – the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – regulation which relates only to the number of animals traded, not the horrific manner in which they are reared and killed.
“Hermès cannot continue to ignore the routine atrocities that take place in the farms and slaughterhouses that supply it with exotic skins,” says PETA Vice President for Europe Mimi Bekhechi. “There’s nothing luxurious about the suffering of sentient beings, and it’s high time the brand switched entirely to the cruelty-free plant-based materials that compassionate consumers are demanding today.”
Three crocodiles are killed to make just one Hermès Birkin bag. Undercover investigations – including a video from the Australian association Kindness Project, filmed in intensive breeding farms belonging to Hermès – reveal the horrors endured by reptiles who are confined, tortured, and killed for their skin. The footage revealed crocodiles crowded in cramped enclosures then isolated in small, filthy cages before being dragged, mutilated, and stabbed with a screwdriver. In December, a PETA Asia investigation into crocodile farming in Thailand showed how crocodiles bred for their skin spend their lives in barren enclosures containing murky pits of water before being violently killed. One crocodile was seen moving for a full 23 minutes after a worker plunged a metal blade into the animal’s neck.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
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Please find PETA US’ question to Axel Dumas below:
Hello. My name is James Fraser, and I have a question for Mr. Dumas on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Last year, you stated that adhering to the “highest standards of animal welfare” is very important to Hermès. PETA entities have proved that as long as the company uses exotic skins, this goal will be impossible to achieve. Ten exposés of the exotic-skins industry have revealed that workers regularly behead conscious lizards and skin crocodiles alive.
In December, another PETA Asia investigation exposed that thousands of crocodiles bred for their skin spend their lives in cramped, filthy pools on a farm in Thailand before being violently killed. One crocodile was seen moving for a full 23 minutes after a worker plunged a metal blade into the animal’s neck.
It makes no difference which farm Hermès sources skins from. This is standard industry practice. Your own animal welfare policy states, “The Hermès approach to animal welfare recognises animal sentience and the importance of providing opportunities for animals to have positive life experiences.” Yet you continue to subject reptiles to a lifetime of suffering and a slow, agonizing death.
You act as if you have nothing to hide, so we say, “Prove it.” We have asked to join Hermès on visits to exotic-animal farms and slaughterhouses—and your lack of response speaks volumes. We believe our fellow shareholders would agree that this would be a useful endeavor. So our question is this: When shall we go together to examine the actual conditions in which the animals live and die?