Snakes Inflated to Death for ‘Luxury’ Items in Shocking New PETA Exposé

LVMH Targeted in Campaign to End Sale of Exotic Skins

For Immediate Release:
March 2, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

A new PETA Asia investigation into a farm in Vietnam that supplies snakeskin for use in the global leather industry reveals horrific cruelty to snakes, including sealing their mouths and anuses with rubber bands and then inflating them to death with an air compressor, crushing their heart and causing severe pain. In response to the findings, PETA is calling on LVMH to stop profiting from the suffering and death of snakes and ban exotic skins.

PETA Asia’s footage shows a snake’s tail moving during the lethal inflation, indicating that the pythons may still be alive as workers tear their skin off and disembowel them. The investigator did not see anyone checking vital signs before beginning the butchery. The snakes were held in cramped, dirty wire cages without water, food, or any enrichment. After learning that many of them had mites, a PETA Asia investigator asked about veterinary care, and a worker replied, “What’s the point [of treating the snakes]? We skin them anyway.”

“Rather than exploring lush jungles and swamps and experiencing all the sensory pleasures that they’re so keenly attuned to, snakes used for their skin are kept in filthy cages, blown up like balloons, and even skinned alive,” says PETA Asia Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA Asia is urging everyone to reject this horrific cruelty by refusing to purchase any items made out of exotic skins.”

PETA Asia also recently obtained new video footage from a farmer demonstrating the slaughter of crocodiles, showing piles of animals with their mouths tied and then wrapped in bags so they couldn’t move. A worker walked on top of them and crudely stunned them, then other workers stabbed them with a metal blade. Despite the attempt to stun them, they were still seen moving as workers attempted to kill them.

PETA recently threatened to file a consumer fraud lawsuit against Louis Vuitton after its CEO claimed that the animals used in its exotic-skins items are “humanely farmed” even though previous PETA video exposés have revealed the  cruel treatment of crocodiles and ostriches in the company’s supply chain. A PETA video exposé featured footage from two farms that supplied skins to LVMH—one kept approximately 5,000 crocodiles in small, concrete enclosures, some narrower than the length of their bodies, and the other packed crocodiles into concrete pits.

A PETA investigation into the largest ostrich slaughter companies in the world, including a then-supplier of ostrich leather to Louis Vuitton, revealed workers forcing terrified ostriches into stun boxes—causing many to fall—and then slitting their throats, as the ostriches next in line watched helplessly. Workers were also observed striking ostriches in the face during transport to slaughterhouses.

In recent years, numerous top designers—including Chanel, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, HUGO BOSS, Victoria Beckham, and Diane von Furstenberg—have all banned exotic skins.

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.