lokai’s Bracelets Are Now Cruelty-Free After PETA Appeal

Animals Will No Longer Be Used to Retrieve Water From Mount Everest for Jeweler’s Iconic Bracelets

For Immediate Release:
October 19, 2015

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Until recently, New York–based jeweler lokai used yaks and other animals to trek up and down Mount Everest to carry heavy loads of the water that’s used to fill the white “stay humble” beads in its bracelets. But following an appeal from PETA, the company quickly pledged never to use animals to retrieve the water again.

“People who are looking to ‘stay humble’ don’t want to force animals to endure the immense hardship and danger of carrying heavy loads up and down Mount Everest,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA can point to lokai as the perfect example of a progressive company that’s quick to make positive changes for animals.”

As PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—noted in its letter to lokai, yaks and other working animals are typically forced to haul heavy loads down steep, rocky, slippery terrain in all weather extremes, and they’re often so weighed down that they’re barely able to stand. Once they’re too old, injured, or sick to work, they’re slaughtered for their meat and skin.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.