Ulverston Woman ‘Skinned Alive’ to Protest Leather at London Fashion Week

For Immediate Release:

14 February 2020

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

ULVERSTON WOMAN ‘SKINNED ALIVE’ TO PROTEST LEATHER AT LONDON FASHION WEEK

PETA Supporter Crashed Opening Event With ‘Leather Is Someone’s Skin. Wear Vegan’ Message

Ulverston, Cumbria – London Fashion Week attendees got an eyeful today when the “skin” of 25-year-old Lydia Smyth, from Ulverston, was torn off – with the help of special-effects make-up – to call attention to the suffering animals endure in the leather industry.

Photos are available here, here, and here.

“For leather jackets and shoes, sensitive cows are sentenced to nightmarish suffering and a miserable death,” says Smyth. “PETA is calling on designers and shoppers to do their part to save animals and the planet by choosing high-quality vegan leather, not animals’ torn-off skin.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – notes that more than a billion animals are killed for leather every year. They endure extreme crowding and deprivation as well as castration, branding, tail-docking, and dehorning, all without any painkillers. At abattoirs, their throats are cut and some are even skinned and dismembered while they’re still conscious.

Last year, Helsinki Fashion Week banned leather from the catwalk, and designers focused instead on superior vegan leather fabrics such as microfibre, Ultrasuede, and recycled polyurethane as well as materials made from pineapple leaves (Piñatex), mushrooms, and wine grapes (Vegea).

Video footage is available here, and a download link for high-res images is available here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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