Hermès Faces PETA Protest After Annual Meeting Snub
For Immediate Release:
May 5, 2021
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
“Prevent Pandemics: Ban Exotic Skins.” That’s the message PETA supporters in stilettos, hazmat suits, and gas masks took to Hermès’ Madison Avenue boutique today following the designer’s decision to dig in its heels at its annual meeting of shareholders yesterday by refusing to answer the group’s question about an exotic-skins ban.
PETA—an Hermès shareholder—tried to confront executives over plans to build what would be Australia’s largest crocodile factory farm, noting that holding wildlife incruel, filthy conditions gave rise to COVID-19. Past PETA exposés have revealed that alligators and crocodiles are confined to dank pools and crowded concrete pits before workers cut into their spines while they’re still alive and peel off their skin. PETA’s full shareholder question is available here, and photos from the protest are available here.
“Savvy, eco-minded customers know what they want, and that’s mock croc and fake snake, not the skin of someone who was tortured,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges Hermès to embrace innovative, fashion-forward materials, as other designers are—because a killer look doesn’t need to kill animals.”
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.
