PETA US DESCENDS ON HERMÈS BOARDROOM TO DEMAND END TO EXOTIC-SKIN SALES

Life-Size 'Ostriches' Surround Building in Protest After Exposé Reveals Young Ostriches Shocked, Smacked and Skinned for 'Luxury' Bags

Paris – At Hermès' annual meeting in Paris on Tuesday, a PETA US representative called on the fashion house to end all exotic-skin sales. PETA US purchased Hermès stock in April with the goal of pushing for change from within the company's boardroom, a move that followed PETA's release of the first-ever exposé of the ostrich-slaughter industry, which revealed that young birds are electrocuted before their throats are slit.

The PETA US representative asked: “Behind every ostrich-, crocodile-, or alligator-skin Birkin bag is a short, miserable life of deprivation capped off by a violent death. Knowing of the suffering that animals endure for these bags, when will Hermès stop using exotic animal skins?“

Outside the meeting, life-size "ostriches" protested against Hermès' cruelly obtained exotic skins.

A photo is available here (photo by Juliana Marques).

"Every pockmarked Hermès purse means a sensitive young ostrich was turned upside down, killed and plucked in a miserable and terrifying abattoir", says PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi. "PETA is calling on Hermès to bag the sale of exotic skins."

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to wear" – has revealed that young ostriches are kept in barren dirt feedlots until they are sent to abattoirs at just 1 year of age, far short of their natural 40-year life expectancy. At the abattoirs, birds are turned upside down in a stunner, their throats are slit and their feathers are plucked out – creating the bumpy-textured skin used for Hermès bags.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk