Mulberry Confirms Exotic-Skins Ban Following PETA Appeal

For Immediate Release:
5 May 2020

Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

MULBERRY CONFIRMS EXOTIC-SKINS BAN FOLLOWING PETA APPEALS 

British Luxury Brand Latest to Cut Ties With Dangerous Trade

London – Following years of urging by PETA – and as conservation experts warn that the trade in exotic skins risks fuelling the spread of diseases like COVID-19 – luxury fashion brand Mulberry has confirmed a ban on exotic skins in all its future collections. The spring/summer 2020 season marks the brand’s first-ever departure from using the skins of alligators, crocodiles, ostriches, lizards, or snakes in its designs. Mulberry already has a fur-free policy.

“[W]e have spent a lot of time determining and then continually reviewing our sustainability metrics and targets,” says Mulberry Group Sustainability Manager Rosie Wollacott. “At an early stage of this process, we decided not to use exotics in our collections, and this remains our position.”

“Behind every handbag or wallet made with exotic skins is an animal who suffered tremendously,” says PETA Director of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “Mulberry’s decision to ban these cruelly obtained materials is a sign of the times, and PETA calls on other luxury labels to follow its lead.”

The current outbreak of COVID-19 is believed to have originated in a Chinese market where wild and exotic animals, both alive and dead, are sold for human consumption. The intense farming of exotic animals for both their flesh and their skins poses a risk of the animal-to-human transmission of newly evolved viruses. Exotic animal farms are breeding grounds for pathogens and increase the risk of future pandemics.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – has released several exposés of the exotic-skins industry. The group has revealed that alligators are kept in fetid water inside dank, dark sheds before their necks are hacked open and metal rods are shoved into their heads in an attempt to scramble their brains, often while they’re fully conscious. One-year-old ostriches are transported by lorry to abattoirs, where workers turn them upside down in a stunner, slit their throats, and rip their feathers out. And snakes are commonly nailed to trees before their bodies are cut open from one end to the other as they’re skinned alive.

Mulberry joins Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, Paul Smith, Victoria Beckham, Vivienne Westwood, and other brands in making the compassionate decision to ban exotic skins from all its designs.

For more information on the cruelty inherent in the exotic-skins trade, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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