Ralph Lauren to Face Pressure From PETA at Shareholder Meeting Over Sourcing of Wild-Animal Skins
For Immediate Release:
July 31, 2024
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
At Ralph Lauren’s annual shareholder meeting tomorrow, PETA—which owns stock in the company—will urge leadership to end its shameful support of the bloody skins trade, which it contributes to even though it claims that it’s committed to “responsible” and “sustainable” sourcing and knows that nearly a dozen exposés by PETA entities have proved that cruelty to wild animals in the industry runs rampant. The latest PETA Asia investigation into crocodile and python farms in Thailand revealed that a worker thrust a metal blade into the neck of a live crocodile whose legs kept moving for more than 20 minutes and that other workers bashed live snakes in the head with a hammer, punched metal hooks through their heads, and inflated their bodies with water—even as the animals continued to move.
“Every day in the skins industry, terrified animals are confined amid filth, mutilated, and violently slaughtered just to make a fleeting fashion statement,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Ralph Lauren to live up to its supposed commitment to responsible sourcing by switching to cruelty-free vegan materials that compassionate consumers demand.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s shareholder question follows.
I have a question on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Ten exposés of the wild-animal skins industry by PETA entities have proved that this industry subjects animals to a wretched life of confinement and a violent slaughter.
The latest PETA Asia investigation uncovered appalling cruelty at crocodile and python farms in Thailand. Thousands of crocodiles bred to be killed for their skin spend their lives in murky water pits. In just one horrific example of the immense suffering crocodiles endure, one was seen moving for a full 23 minutes after a worker plunged a metal blade into the animal’s neck.
Emaciated and sick pythons—one whose eyes were grotesquely bulging from their sockets—were housed in boxes and cages so filthy and lived under such deprived conditions that a reptile expert characterized their treatment as inhumane. Workers bashed pythons in the head with hammers, impaled them on hooks, pumped their bodies full of water as they continued to move, and then skinned them.
Before you recite another prepared statement that reiterates your animal welfare policy, allow us to point out that the details from this investigation not only mirror atrocities we have seen time and again in the wild-animal skins trade but also violate the general principles outlined in your own policy. These principles are intended to apply across the entire supply chain and require fundamental aspects of welfare, such as good nutrition and a good physical environment, appropriate behavioral interactions, sufficient space, and slaughter that avoids suffering and pain.
My question is this: Given the impossibility of sourcing “exotic” skins in a manner consistent with the company’s own principles, when will Ralph Lauren align its practices with the integrity it seeks to inspire and wash its hands clean of wild animals’ suffering by ending its sale of their skin?
