Undercover Investigators Expose Atrocities on Alligator Farms that Supply Retailer Hermès
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

TheirTurn.net / People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
June 2015

ACTION

The alligators sold by Hermès are subjected to unspeakable atrocities on their journey to becoming a purse. Please sign letter asking Hermes to stop selling items made from crocodile and alligator skins.

In a statement included in the NY Times story about the PETA investigation, Hermès defends its products and expresses no remorse about the brutality exposed in the video. In Texas, the Chambers County District Attorney is conducting an investigation at Lone Star Alligator Farms.

Sign an online petition here

Hermès online customer service contact

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

Alligators and crocodiles are so clever that some even use tools to lure prey and respond when they're called by name. They thrive in fresh air and sunshine in waters that are naturally refreshed by rain and rivers. Yet our investigator documented thousands of sensitive animals forced to live in pits filled with foul, excrement-filled water where they are confined around the clock until the day they're killed.

alligator skin cruelties
Up to four alligators must be slaughtered to make one Hermès Birkin Bag.

In 2001, a NY Times fashion writer reported that Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, attempted to use her famous last name at an Hermès store to jump to the front of a waiting list for a Birkin Bag, a purse regarded by many as the ultimate status symbol. Ms. Seinfeld, exasperated by negative stories written about her in gossip columns, denied the allegations in subsequent media coverage. Lost in the celebrity scandal were the real victims: the alligators and crocodiles who are raised and slaughtered in concrete factories to make the purses.

In 2014, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent undercover investigators into factories in Zimbabwe and Texas that supply Hermes with their crocodiles and alligators. Video footage shows employees cutting into their bodies while they are fully conscious, sawing into the back of their necks with a box cutter to sever their blood vessels and stabbing them in an attempt to dislocate their vertebrae during the drawn-out slaughter process. Investigators documented crocodiles bleeding out and writhing in agony for several minutes.

Watch the video here on youtube [graphic].

The undercover investigation also revealed the conditions in which the alligators and crocodiles are housed. In the wild, these intelligent animals raise their young, use tools to capture their prey and live for decades, often longer than humans. On factory farms, the crocodiles are intensively confined in concrete pits, forced to live in pools of their own excrement and denied the chance to do anything that comes naturally to them. They are slaughtered after just one year.

alligator skin cruelties
Crocodiles at Hermes crocodile skin supplier live in excrement-filled concrete pits

alligator skin cruelties
Hermes' crocodile factory farm in Zimbabwe

Hermès suppliers slaughter up to four alligators to make just one Birkin bag. The skins are also used to make watchbands, belts, shoes and other accessories.

alligator skin cruelties
Alligator: before and after

In a statement included in the NY Times story about the PETA investigation, Hermès defends its products and expresses no remorse about the brutality exposed in the video.

In Texas, the Chambers County District Attorney is conducting an investigation at Lone Star Alligator Farms.


Thank you for everything you do for animals!


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