Jane Birkin Ignores Cruelty to Ostriches, but Can She Ignore This?
Despite hearing that ostriches are shocked, smacked, killed, plucked and skinned for her namesake – the Birkin bag – Jane Birkin has so far failed to speak out against this cruelty. Now in a new parody video, PETA France is calling on the ’70s singer to tell Hermès to ditch the cruel ostrich leather:
PETA’s first-ever exposé of the ostrich-slaughter industry showed the world that young ostriches are kept in barren dirt feedlots until they are transported to abattoirs. There, the birds – when they’re only a year old – are turned upside down in a stunner. Then their throats are slit and their feathers are plucked out, creating the bumpy-textured, or “goose bump”, skin used for Birkin bags.
PETA France has sent the video to Jane in the hope that it will inspire her to put herself in the place of the animals being killed for the bags that carry her name. The video comes after numerous pleas from PETA urging her to denounce the cruelty of the exotic-skins industry.
Every ostrich-skin bag with the Birkin name on it means that a sensitive young ostrich endured a miserable life and a terrifying death. Jane should seize this opportunity to disassociate herself from Hermès before her name becomes as synonymous with cruelty to animals as that of Cruella de Vil.
You Can Help
Watch and share the video taken inside the largest ostrich-slaughter companies in the world. Then join us in putting pressure on luxury fashion houses to stop using ostrich and other exotic skins.
