Snakes Inflated to Death for ‘Luxury’ Items in Shocking New PETA Exposé

Snakes Inflated to Death for ‘Luxury’ Items in Shocking New PETA Exposé

LVMH Targeted in Campaign to End Sale of Exotic Skins

London – A new PETA Asia investigation into a farm in Vietnam that supplies snakeskin for use in the global leather industry reveals horrific cruelty to snakes, including sealing their mouths and anuses with rubber bands and then inflating them to death with an air compressor, crushing their heart and causing severe pain. In response to the findings, PETA is calling on LVMH to stop profiting from the suffering and death of snakes and ban exotic skins.

PETA Asia’s footage shows a snake’s tail moving during the lethal inflation, indicating that the pythons may still be alive as workers tear their skin off and disembowel them. The investigator did not see anyone checking vital signs before beginning the butchery. The snakes were held in cramped, dirty wire cages without any water, food, or enrichment. After learning that many of them had mites, a PETA Asia investigator asked about veterinary care, and a worker replied, “What’s the point [of treating the snakes]? We skin them anyway.”

“Rather than exploring lush jungles and swamps and experiencing all the sensory pleasures that they’re so keenly attuned to, snakes used for their skin are kept in filthy cages, blown up like balloons, and even skinned alive,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is urging everyone to reject this horrific cruelty by refusing to purchase any item made with exotic skins.”

PETA Asia also recently obtained new video footage from a farmer demonstrating the slaughter of crocodiles, showing piles of animals with their mouths tied and then wrapped in bags so they couldn’t move. A worker walked on top of them and crudely stunned them, then other workers stabbed them with a metal blade. Despite the attempt to stun them, they were still seen moving as workers attempted to kill them.

PETA Asia and its affiliates – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” and which oppose speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview – have exposed cruelty on reptile farms on three continents (Africa, Asia, and North America) and have shown each time that these intelligent, sensitive animals endure imprisonment in squalid conditions and a violent death.

In recent years, numerous top designers – Including Chanel, Tommy Hilfiger, HUGO BOSS, Victoria Beckham, and Mulberry – have banned exotic skins, and PETA is calling on LVMH to follow suit.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on FacebookTwitter, or Instagram.

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]

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