PETA Celebrates: Pro-Python Lawsuit Against Gucci Will Proceed
Are snakes killed “humanely” for Gucci’s “exotic”-skin products? According to a former top-selling Gucci sales associate, the brand tells consumers a load of lies.
Tracy Cohen, who reports selling nearly $50 million in goods over the course of her nearly 18-year career with Gucci, took aim at the fashion house in June with a consumer fraud and deceptive business practices class action amended lawsuit. She asserted that she’d been deceived for years about how the company’s python-skin products are obtained—and unwittingly passed that misinformation on to well-intentioned clients.
On October 21, a district judge denied Gucci’s motion to dismiss Cohen’s suit.
In the failed motion to dismiss, Gucci’s owner, Kering, egregiously doubled down, claiming baselessly that its animal welfare standards are “aspirational” and that “[n]o reasonable consumer reading [its] policies in context would conclude … that all suppliers comply under all circumstances and in every instance.”
PETA is pleased that Gucci’s lies will continue to be spotlighted, and we’re thankful to Cohen for coming forward to expose this brazen brand for consistently duping clients and its own employees about the suffering behind every stitch of its products made from the skins of pythons who didn’t want to die.
Caring consumers don’t need to wait for Gucci to do the right thing. You can help animals today by never purchasing items made from wild animals’ skins.
How PETA Asia’s Python Investigation Is Linked to the Lawsuit
In the lawsuit, Cohen asserts that she was instructed to tell customers that Gucci’s python-skin products were obtained through the “natural shedding process”—then she learned of PETA Asia’s investigation into python farms linked to Gucci’s owner, Kering, workers were caught bashing live snakes in the head with a hammer, punching metal hooks through their heads, and inflating their bodies with water—even as the animals continued to move about.
Cohen says in the lawsuit that had she known the truth—which is that animals are being violently killed for Gucci’s products—she would never have deceived customers by performing Gucci’s elaborate “selling ceremony” or personally purchased python-skin bags and shoes for her own use.
Gucci Slammed With Lawsuit Over Deceptive Selling Ceremony
The lawsuit describes how during Gucci’s “selling ceremony” for potential customers, employees put on black gloves to present products and tell customers that the skins were sourced “ethically,” that the animals were not “tortured,” and that the skins were a “byproduct of the food industry.”
There’s Nothing Fashionable About Killing Animals: Take Action
PETA commends Cohen for exposing how Gucci deceives its customers and its staff about the cruel, violent methods used to kill pythons for accessories. You can help, too! Tell Kering to stop selling anything made from the skins of pythons and other animals through Gucci and all its other brands. And make sure you tell everyone you know about this issue so they won’t buy anything made from animals again.
