LVMH to Face Pressure From PETA US at Shareholder Meeting Over Fur and Wild-Animal Skin Sales
16.04.2025
Paris – “When will LVMH use truly creative, innovative, and harmless materials; stop supporting extreme cruelty; and end dependence on the disgusting fur and wild-skins trade?” That’s the question that PETA US – which owns stock in the company – has asked CEO Bernard Arnault to address at the annual meeting on 17 April. LVMH is the parent company of Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Fendi.
“Every fur trim, crocodile handbag, or pair of snakeskin shoes represents the tremendous suffering of an animal who felt fear and pain and did not want to die,” says PETA Vice President of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA is calling on LVMH to cut cruelty from its collections and switch to luxurious bio-based vegan furs and plant leathers that compassionate consumers demand.”
Minks purr when they’re happy, ostriches nurture their young for up to three years, and crocodiles are doting mothers who diligently protect their eggs from predators . A PETA Asia investigation into slaughterhouses in Indonesia that supply LVMH shows snakes being inflated with water, bashed with hammers, and cut with razors while they were likely still conscious. PETA entities have also documented how workers in the fashion industry hack at crocodiles’ necks and shove metal rods down their spines, chop off conscious lizards’ heads with machetes, and electrically stun ostriches before slitting their throats in full view of their terrified flockmates. Animals raised and killed for fur are confined to tiny, filthy cages before they’re electrocuted, bludgeoned, gassed, or even skinned alive.
PETA notes that many other major designers—such as Chanel, Balenciaga, Burberry, Mulberry, Victoria Beckham, Diane von Furstenberg, and Vivienne Westwood—have banned the use of the skin of reptiles or other wildlife and nearly all top luxury fashion houses have banned the use of fur.
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 PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
The full text of PETA US’ shareholder question follows.
In a world where fashion, ethics, and sustainability are increasingly intertwined, LVMH remains an outlier by still using fur and wild-animal skins.
Fendi and Dior have access to the most beautiful bio-based vegan furs, yet they still condemn minks, foxes, and other wild animals to be confined to cramped cages on fur factory farms, stressed and turning in circles before being gassed, bludgeoned, or electrocuted. Berluti and Louis Vuitton have the finest embossed plant leathers at their fingertips yet our company continues to use the skins of snakes who were beaten with hammers and cut open with razor blades while they were likely still alive and of crocodiles who were raised in filthy pits in their own waste and who are often killed with metal rods that are rammed down their spines. These animals feel pain and fear just as we do, Monsieur Arnaut, and they are often alive as the skin is peeled from their bodies.
Will you go to your grave being known for never having the slightest understanding, empathy, or respect for wildlife? Our company is looking out of touch. Despite Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries and all that people now know about the wonders of wildlife, LVMH is still cutting them up for bags—and the world will condemn us for that. When will our company use truly creative, innovative, and harmless materials; stop supporting extreme cruelty; and end dependence on the disgusting fur and wild-skins trade?