PETA to LVMH: To Help Avoid Next Pandemic, Drop Fur and Exotic Skins Now

For Immediate Release:
April 13, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

“When will LVMH make the sensible decision to move away from the dangerous and cruel trade in the skins of minks, alligators, foxes, and pythons and invest in the future?” That’s the question submitted by PETA, which has been an LVMH shareholder since 2017, ahead of the fashion group’s general meeting on Thursday.

PETA notes that the fur industry is directly involved in the spread of the novel coronavirus. Outbreaks have been recorded on fur farms in Canada, Denmark—where a variant of the disease in minks has infected humans—France, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the U.S., resulting in the emergency slaughter of millions of animals. Other species bred for their fur—such as foxes and raccoon dogs—can also be infected with coronaviruses. And experts warn that farms exploiting animals for “luxury” accessories are breeding grounds for pathogens, increasing the risk of future pandemics.

“As long as sick and stressed animals are still crammed together in filthy cages or squalid pits so that companies like LVMH can sell their skin, the next pandemic will be just around the corner,” says PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews. “PETA is calling on LVMH to stop risking the public’s health with mink coats and crocodile bags that today’s compassionate shoppers don’t want.”

Last month, PETA wrote to Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, to share a brand-new exposé showing snakes being inflated to death with compressed air and crocodiles being electrocuted, trampled, and stabbed while presumably still conscious, common practices in the exotic-skins trade.

The full text of PETA’s question is available here. 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.