PETA US Calls Out ‘Conscious’ FARFETCH: Stop the Cruelty, Drop Exotic Skins
London – “When will FARFETCH be true to its purported values in its actions rather than words and join its peers in banning the sale of exotic skins?” This is the question asked by PETA US, a FARFETCH shareholder, ahead of the global fashion retailer’s annual meeting in the Cayman Islands on Monday. FARFETCH committed to banning fur in 2020 and angora in 2021.
“It’s a cruel irony that founder and CEO José Neves recently lauded a boom in the sale of ‘conscious’ fashion at FARFETCH, while simultaneously selling items made of the skin of exotic animals who were likely conscious as they were decapitated, slit open with razor blades, and skinned,” says PETA Vice President of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA is calling on FARFETCH to embody its conscious approach by cutting ties with the violent exotic-skins trade.”
A PETA exposé shows that workers closed off pythons’ mouths and anuses with rubber bands and cut a hole in either the snakes’ heads or tails to insert a hose and inflate the animals with an air compressor, causing them to suffocate. Alligators are commonly kept in fetid water inside dank, dark sheds until slaughter, when their necks are hacked open and a metal rod is shoved into their brains, often while they’re fully conscious. Ostriches are killed at just 1 year of age, after being transported by lorry to abattoirs where workers flip them upside down, stun them, and slit their throats.
Retailers that have introduced bans on exotic skins include Selfridges, Mytheresa, and Moda Operandi.
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.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
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PETA US’ question to FARFETCH follows:
FARFETCH has said it is committed to driving positive change and shaping a more sustainable future for luxury fashion, but in reality it lags behind many of its competitors—including Selfridges, Mytheresa, and Moda Operandi —by continuing to profit from the sale of products made of exotic-animal skins on its influential platform.
Earlier this year, FARFETCH founder and CEO José Neves highlighted that the sale of “conscious” products is increasing exponentially at the company. But if it continues to prop up one of the most violent and dangerous industries on the planet, compassionate consumers like those FARFETCH is courting will shop elsewhere. Investigations by PETA entities have documented that in the exotic-skins trade, pythons are slit open with razors, lizards are decapitated with machetes, and metal rods are rammed down crocodiles’ spines while they’re fully conscious. Experts report that as a result of their unique physiology, these animals are likely conscious and able to feel pain throughout these ordeals. Furthermore, conservationists warn that exotic-animal farms are breeding grounds for pathogens, increasing the risk of future pandemics.
Its support for the exotic-skins trade directly contradicts the conscious fashion–leader image that FARFETCH portrays to the public, so PETA’s question is this: When will FARFETCH be true to its purported values in its actions rather than words and join its peers in banning the sale of exotic skins?