Photo Op: Cruel Snake-Skin Sales to Summon Wrathful ‘God of Wealth’ to Gucci Store Ahead of Lunar New Year
Photo Op: Cruel Snake-Skin Sales to Summon Wrathful ‘God of Wealth’ to Gucci Store Ahead of Lunar New Year
What: “Say No to Gucci Python Bags, Welcome Good Luck.” That’s the fortune PETA Asia’s “God of Wealth” will bestow ahead of the Chinese Year of the Snake on Thursday, when they descend upon the Gucci store in Taipei’s busiest shopping district and hang a realistic, bloody “python” from a couplet reading, “Prosperous Year of the Snake, Avoid Killing” to urge the company stop selling accessories made from the skins of tormented snakes.
The action comes after a PETA Asia investigation revealed that workers at two python farms that supply skins to a tannery operated by Kering—the owner of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent—pinned struggling pythons down by the neck before bashing them over the head with a hammer and impaling them on hooks while they were still moving.
“Pythons are complex beings who enjoy basking in the warmth of the sun, but the snakes sentenced to die for Gucci’s designs are confined to tiny, filthy boxes before being bludgeoned, pierced through the skull, and skinned,” says PETA Asia Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on Kering to stop peddling the skins of tormented pythons and switch to luxurious vegan materials that no one had to suffer and die for.”
Where: Outside Gucci, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, 1/F, No. 19, Song Gao Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City
When: Thursday, January 16, 2 p.m.
Interviews will be available on-site and remotely.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow PETA Asia on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
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