(Reuters) — Animal rights activists from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) rallied in front of the Hermes’ store in Tokyo on Thursday (July 30) to call on the luxury brand to stop using exotic skins for their bags.
Their protest came a day after actress and singer Jane Birkin asked Hermes to remove her name from one of the luxury goods maker’s best-selling bags due to what she called “cruel” crocodile farming and slaughtering practices.
“I have asked Hermes to rename the Birkin Croco until they adopt better practices that meet international standards for the production of this bag,” Birkin said in a statement to the media on Tuesday (July 30).
PETA said it had released a video, narrated by actor Joaquin Phoenix and which Birkin had seen, showing how live reptiles were skinned or sawed open on farms that supplied luxury brands.
“We’re asking Hermes today to stop using exotic skins to produce their bags. Crocodiles and other exotic animals feel pain and suffering, and they don’t need to use them to produce their bags any more,” one of the PETA activists, Claire Dicarlo said at Wednesday’s protest.
Another PETA activist Ashley Fruno praised Birkin for speaking out against Hermes.
“Jane Birkin made a compassionate decision to ask Hermes to stop using her name to represent the Birkin bag in protest of the cruelty that every single Birkin bag represents, so we’re simply asking Hermes to please stop selling exotic skins,” another PETA activist Ashley Fruno said.
Birkin said in a statement to media that she had signed Phoenix’s Mercy For Animals petition to “shed exotic skins from your wardrobe” in protest against the “millions of reptiles slaughtered each year and turned into shoes, handbags, belts and other accessories”.
A Japanese resident who watched the demonstration hoped it will bring about change.
“I’m surprised by the truth. I think it will be a turning point in the practice of killing animals,” 70-year-old Japanese housewife Rie Kuroda said.
Another spectator, 33-year-old Noriko Kogure who said she owns several Hermes bags, was skeptical whether Birkin’s actions will make an impact.
“There should be some sort of impact on the sales of the bag if they have to change its name, but I think people who are eager to buy one won’t change their mind,” she said.
Hermes said the crocodile skins it sourced from a Texas farm in the video were not used for Birkin bags and stressed that it did not own that farm.
The luxury brand also said that an investigation was being conducted into the farm’s practices and that “any breach of rules will be rectified and sanctioned.”
Hermes said it imposed on its suppliers the highest ethical standards regarding the treatment of crocodiles and for more than a decade, had conducted monthly checks on them to ensure that they were respected.
Birkin agreed to lend her name to the bag after sharing a flight with the charismatic late head of Hermes Jean-Louis Dumas, in the 1980s.
