Hermès Store Hit With PETA ‘Crocodile’ Protesters

In response to horrifying video footage released by Kindness Project, which shows crocodiles on farms in Australia with ties to Hermès confined to concrete pens, electrocuted, stabbed, shot, and mutilated with screwdrivers, two PETA ‘crocodiles’ descended on the brand’s New Bond Street store.

PETA UK Hermès Protest.

The demonstration is part of a massive international campaign by animal rights organisations that will feature protests in countries from Australia and Austria to Spain and Switzerland.

Mathilde Mazars

PETA France protest in Paris.

Mathilde Mazars

PETA France protest in Paris.

What Did the Footage Reveal?

The shocking new footage given to Kindness Project by the Farm Transparency Project reveals the appalling conditions endured by Australian saltwater crocodiles held captive on farms owned by French fashion house Hermès and its suppliers.

The eyewitness footage, narrated by actor Evanna Lynch, captures the moment that crocodiles are mutilated and stabbed with a screwdriver.

Find out more and watch the footage here.

PETA and our international affiliates have exposed cruelty at reptile farms before, and the story is always the same: grim, close confinement and a violent death.

PETA US became a Hermès shareholder in 2015 after exposing cruelty at reptile farms in Texas and Zimbabwe that supplied a Hermès-owned tannery. In 2016, a PETA US exposé revealed the suffering of young ostriches at a Hermès supplier, and in 2017, a PETA Asia exposé in Vietnam showed crocodiles locked in grim concrete stalls with unsanitary pools and subjected to violent deaths.

Crocodile Cruelty

Crocodiles can be dangerous to those who enter their territory, but they’re also sentient beings who feel pain and fear. They’re protective, attentive parents and often amuse themselves by blowing bubbles. If left to their own devices, they can outlive humans.

At least three crocodiles must endure this suffering to make just one Hermès bag.

Every crocodile-skin Hermès bag represents the pain of a tortured animal whose skin was torn from them. PETA is joining this huge push to get the brand to drop exotic skins at last.