PETA attends Hermès meeting, calls for vegan bags; Dumas speaks of ‘ethical farms’

Fashion

A Peta sign. Credits: Courtesy of Peta France, credit Vakita/Marie Lecoq

“When will Hermès ban wild animal skins and embrace ethical luxury by launching vegan Birkin and Kelly bags?” This was the question that PETA, which owns shares in the French company, put to chief executive officer Axel Dumas on April 30, during Hermès’s general meeting. “The action follows PETA's new DIY video on YouTube, which has garnered over one million views across all platforms and shows a fashion blogger teaching her audience how to make an ‘Hermès Birkin bag’ from scratch, starting with a live three-year-old crocodile,” explained PETA, an acronym for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in a statement.

“Numerous designer brands are ditching deadly, destructive wild animal skins, but Hermès is still clinging to the same old cruelty,” said Tracy Reiman, executive vice president of PETA, urging the French company “to use only luxury vegan materials, which do not involve the torture and killing of sentient beings”.

Dumas told shareholders he was ‘open to world’ while rejecting PETA's request to visit an Australian intensive farm supplying Hermès together

Dumas’s response during the meeting, according to PETA, was an empty and shameful attempt to avoid all responsibility. Dumas told shareholders he was “open to world” while rejecting PETA's request to join him on a visit to an Australian intensive farm supplying Hermès, where it claims crocodiles languish in tiny, dirty cages before workers electrocute them, cut their throats and stab them in the brain with screwdrivers, sometimes while they are still conscious. FashionUnited contacted Hermès for an official statement on PETA's intervention at the meeting, but has not yet received any comment.

Full text of question to Hermès president Axel Dumas

Here is the full text of the question to Dumas: “My name is James Fraser and I have a question for chief executive officer Axel Dumas on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. An investigation into Australian farms owned by Hermès and its suppliers shows that crocodiles are confined to cramped cages or small concrete pens filled with dirty water before being electrocuted, dragged and mutilated with blades and screwdrivers, some while still conscious. On farms in South Africa that supply Hermès with ostrich skins, young animals spend their short lives in barren pens. At a slaughterhouse, workers force ostriches into stun boxes, causing many to slip and fall before slitting their throats. In response to the investigation, Hermès continues to mislead the public and shareholders by referring to Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, knowing full well that this regulation concerns the number of animals traded, not the horrific way they are raised and killed.”

“Monsieur Dumas, selling macabre accessories made from the body parts of wild animals is tarnishing our company’s reputation and alienating the conscious consumers who represent the future of luxury fashion. When will Hermès ban wild animal skins and embrace ethical luxury by launching vegan Birkin and Kelly bags?” Fraser concluded.

Following Dumas’s response, the animal rights association reiterated in a statement that it would not be possible to speak of “ethical farming” as the chief executive officer of Hermès had done when, “obviously, there is nothing moral about cramming animals into overcrowded cages and brutally slaughtering them for their skin. From Texas to Zimbabwe to South Africa, PETA has denounced the appalling conditions in which animals are raised and killed for Hermès accessories, and the fashion house will continue to be pressured by PETA until it stops selling products made from the skin of tormented animals and switches to luxury vegan materials”.

PETA finally noted that many other fashion houses such as Chanel, Balenciaga, Burberry, Mulberry, Victoria Beckham, Diane von Furstenberg and Vivienne Westwood have banned the use of reptile or other wild animal skins from their collections.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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