PETA Disrupts Burberry Fashion Show in London

Update (16 September 2024): F*ck Leather! PETA Crashes Burberry’s Catwalk
PETA stole the show at Burberry’s London Fashion Week event, as an activist disrupted the runway to urge consumers to reject leather. Wearing dresses and shirts reading, “Animals Aren’t Fabric” and carrying signs saying, “F*ck Leather!”, before being escorted out by security.

F*ck leather.
💥We crashed @Burberry #LFW show… again💥
We don’t plan on stopping until all animals are free from the leather industry. pic.twitter.com/Q6q920rjs1

— PETA UK (@PETAUK) September 16, 2024

This event was the third Burberry fashion show crashed by PETA supporters. In July, activists also disrupted the company’s annual meeting to highlight the cruelty that’s rampant in the cashmere industry.

A PETA exposé of the global leather trade revealed that animals were transported for weeks without adequate food, water, or rest and confined in filthy conditions. Exhausted animals who couldn’t walk after their ordeal were hoisted up by the legs and dragged off ships with cranes. Cows’ throats were often slit with dull knives while they were fully conscious, leaving them to bleed out slowly, terrified and in agony.

Update (19 February 2024): PETA Crashes Burberry Catwalk With Anti-Leather Message
A PETA supporter stormed the catwalk of the Burberry show at London Fashion Week holding a sign that read, “Leather Kills”.

Watch what happened next:

Original blog (18 September 2023):
Today, a PETA supporter posing as a model stormed the runway of the Burberry fashion show in Highbury Fields, brandishing a sign that proclaimed, “Burberry: Animals Are Not Clothing.”

BREAKING: PETA disrupts @Burberry fashion show in London. #BurberryxBright pic.twitter.com/YfqCxbRaiF

— PETA UK (@PETAUK) September 18, 2023

Every archaic item made of animal skins represents the pain and suffering of vulnerable individuals who don’t deserve to be mutilated for clothing and accessories. We are calling on Burberry to do the right thing and leave animals out of its collections and reminding consumers that animals are not ours to wear.

What Materials Should Burberry Ban?

Burberry has already banned the use of fur, angora, and exotic skins. We are urging it to take the next compassionate step by dropping all animal-derived materials – starting with cashmere and down as well as wool and leather – from its collections in favour of high-quality, luxury vegan fabrics.

In July, PETA US – a Burberry shareholder – attended the company’s annual meeting in London to push for cashmere and feather bans. The action follows damning PETA Asia investigations into goat and duck farms and slaughterhouses linked to the misleadingly labelled Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) and Responsible Down Standard (RDS), which are touted by the fashion house in its responsible sourcing policy. Burberry claims that it doesn’t knowingly use materials that “may inflict any harm to animal welfare”, yet terrified goats, geese, and ducks are suffering horribly for its designs.

The Cashmere Industry Is a Rip-Off

A new PETA Asia investigation revealed workers at SFA-certified cashmere farms pinning down goats by their legs and horns and pulling out their hair with sharp metal combs as the animals screamed in pain and terror and were left with bloody wounds.

A herder cut kid goats’ scrotums open with a knife and pulled out their testicles, all without pain relief. In slaughterhouses, workers bludgeoned goats in the head with a hammer before slitting their throats.

SFA guidelines don’t require annual farm audits or the use of pain relief for castration or for injuries sustained during violent restraining and combing – and they consider treating animals “humanely” prior to slaughter to be a recommendation, not a requirement.

Geese Are Decapitated for ‘Responsible’ Down

Recent PETA Asia investigations into farms and slaughterhouses that supply the down trade revealed ducks with bloody wounds being kept in dirty, dark sheds; a worker cutting conscious, terrified ducks’ necks as they struggled; and geese shrieking as a worker repeatedly hacked at their necks with a blunt axe before eventually decapitating them. Feathers from these facilities were later sold as RDS-certified.

Never Buy Cashmere or Down

Numerous exposés by PETA entities reveal that suffering, violence, and killing are ubiquitous in the down and cashmere industries. Stay away from this cruelty by choosing luxurious vegan materials, which are readily available.