PRADA'S GOT A NEW PART-OWNER – AND IT'S PETA US

Stock Purchase to Allow Push for End to Cruel Ostrich-Skin Purse

London – Following an eyewitness exposé which revealed that 1-year-old ostriches are electrocuted and have their throats slit for "luxury" ostrich-skin bags, PETA US has become a Prada shareholder – an action that will allow the animal rights charity to attend Prada's annual meetings and officially call on the company to end all exotic-skins sales.

"Every pockmarked Prada purse represents a sensitive young ostrich who was turned upside down, killed and plucked in a miserable and terrifying abattoir", says PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi. "PETA US is taking the fight against cruelty straight to Prada's boardroom – and demanding a permanent end to ostrich-skin handbags."

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to wear" – released video footage from the largest ostrich-slaughter companies in the world, which exposed that young ostriches are kept in barren dirt feedlots until they are trucked to slaughter at just 1 year of age, far short of their natural 40-year life expectancy. At the abattoir, birds are turned upside down in a stunner, have their throats slit and have their feathers plucked out – creating the bumpy-textured skin used for Prada bags.

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