Animal-rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has purchased one share of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in the hopes of pressuring the brand to stop using exotic skin in its products. PETA circulated a video last December showing the mistreatment of crocodiles on a farm allegedly used to supply fashion brands with leather for high-end goods.
PETA made the following statement:
“In the wake of a PETA exposé revealing that reptiles on crocodile farms in Vietnam — including two that have supplied skins to a tannery owned by Louis Vuitton’s parent company, LVMH — are confined to tiny pits and sometimes hacked into while they’re still alive and thrashing, PETA has become a shareholder of LVMH on the Euronext Paris to put pressure on the company to stop selling exotic skins merchandise.”
PETA president Ingrid Newkirk added:
“Every PETA exposé of the exotic-skins industry has found sensitive living beings crammed into filthy pits, hacked apart and left to die … From demonstrating on the street to speaking up in the boardroom, PETA will push LVMH to stop selling any bag, watchband or shoe made from a reptile’s skin.”
A spokesperson for LVMH stated:
“Since 2014, the LVMH group and its suppliers definitively ceased working with the farms mentioned by PETA. The practices referred to by PETA are totally contrary to the principles and rules of the LVMH group. PETA was informed of all these elements prior to diffusing its video.”
PETA has previously snagged shares of Hermès and Prada in similar attempts to confront the brands to change their animal-skinning ways. Last May, a French PETA spokesperson named Isabelle Goetz confronted Hermès CEO Axel Dumas over the company’s use of exotic crocodile and alligator skins for its bags. PETA also hopes to pressure Prada to “help the company pull its head out of the sand” and “end the sale of cruelly produced ostrich-skin purses.”