Cruel Fashion: When You Buy, You Become Part of It

Every year, millions of animals – including bears, alligators and zebras – are violently killed for their skins and body parts. It’s an ugly truth that people who purchase jackets, handbags or shoes made from exotic skins might try to push to the back of their minds. Our provocative new series of ads, though, will force them to make the connection between their consumer choices and the ugly bloodshed that lies behind them.

These images were designed for PETA by top design company Lowe Singapore. They’re upsetting – deliberately. Would-be fashionistas who sport snakeskin shoes or a fur-trimmed hat need to take a long, hard look at their consciences, because as long as they are giving their money to an industry that tears the skins from animals’ backs, they might as well be holding the clubs and knives themselves.

Here are the unfashionable facts: animals killed for fur are electrocuted, poisoned, gassed or have their necks broken. Snakes have hoses rammed into their mouths and are pumped full of water so that poachers can more easily cut off their tightened skin while they’re still alive. Hunters club alligators until they stop moving, but some of them remain alive and fully able to feel pain as their skin is ripped off.

This cruelty is 100 per cent unnecessary. There’s no excuse for it. Please, if your wardrobe harbours any guilty secrets, make a fresh start and pledge to go cruelty-free by shedding exotic skins. You’ll feel better for it, and it’s the first step towards ending this barbaric, bloody industry and saving animals from painful, gruesome deaths in the name of human vanity.