Dakota Johnson Paid to Push Illegal Python Skins for Gucci, PETA Says

For Immediate Release:
January 11, 2023

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

On the heels of actor Dakota Johnson’s new campaign modeling snakeskin bags for Gucci, PETA has rushed a letter to her notifying her that python bags are so cruel that selling them is illegal in California. Pushing her to stop promoting and wearing all exotic skins, the letter points to a recent PETA Asia investigation into a slaughterhouse that supplies Gucci, which revealed workers beheading and dismembering live animals to make the brand’s wallets, belts, and purses.

“Workers were caught on camera bashing reptiles over the head with machetes and hacking at their necks up to 14 times before they were decapitated for their skin,” writes PETA Celebrity Outreach Principal Jessica Shotorbani. “There’s really no excuse to support such a violent industry. If she wants to advertise what’s in fashion today, that means mock croc and fake snake, all vegan skins.”

PETA entities’ investigations into the exotic skins industry have also documented that workers inflate pythons with compressed air, electroshock crocodiles, shove metal rods into alligators’ heads in an attempt to scramble their brains, and cut snakes open with razorblades.

Nine out of 10 Gen Z consumers—who, together with millennials, boast $350 billion in spending power in the U.S. alone—say that companies should show an environmental and social consciousness in their business practices. Many companies—including Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Burberry, and Carolina Herrera—have banned exotic skins, and many more are meeting the growing demand for sustainable, animal-friendly products by offering vegan options made from pineapples, mushrooms, apples, cacti, and other innovative materials.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.