Push to Drop Fur and Exotic Skins Heads to LVMH’s Boardroom

For Immediate Release:

30 June 2020

Contact:

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

Push to Drop Fur and Exotic Skins Heads to LVMH’s Boardroom

PETA US Points to Coronavirus Risk and Cruelty to Animals Inherent in Filthy Fur and Reptile Farms

Paris – “Will LVMH continue to risk public health and support extreme cruelty to animals, or will it act like an ethical and sustainable company by banning exotic skins and fur today?” That’s the question from PETA US – which bought stock in LVMH in 2017 – that the company will have to address during its annual meeting today.

PETA notes that conservation experts have warned that the practices of the exotic-skins industry increase the risk of future epidemics, as the wild animals it uses are typically confined and slaughtered in filthy conditions – just as animals at “wet markets” are – creating a breeding ground for pathogens similar to the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 has already swept through fur farms, sickening minks and workers in the Netherlands, which subsequently voted to ban the breeding of any more minks for their fur.

“Filthy farms packed with sick, stressed, and injured animals are breeding grounds for disease,” says PETA Director of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA is calling on LVMH to stop the risk that the production of its crocodile-skin bags and fur coats poses to public health and the extreme suffering it causes animals and to join the growing list of fashion brands who are moving away from fur and exotic skins.”

PETA and its affiliates have documented that in the exotic-skins industry, crocodiles are cut into while they’re still alive and thrashing in agony, snakes are pumped full of water to loosen their skin – which is peeled off, often while they’re still conscious – and feathers are yanked out of ostriches with pliers while the birds are still alive. Recent exposés of fur farms found that rabbits were bludgeoned with metal pipes and a chinchilla shrieked and convulsed for over a minute after a worker failed to electrocute her properly.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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