Video: David Miller Exposes Local Ostrich-Slaughter Industry

Johannesburg – Supermodel David Miller is the voice behind a new PETA video detailing how ostriches suffer in South Africa, the ostrich-slaughter and ostrich-feather export capital of the world. The country supplies ostrich skins to Hermès, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and other fashion houses and ostrich feathers internationally for use in festivals and costumes. Ostrich meat is also sold throughout South Africa and exported primarily to Europe. 

In the video, Miller points to PETA’s investigation into South African slaughterhouses, which captured never-before-seen footage revealing that workers forcibly restrain the birds, electrically stun them, and then cut their throats. Moments later, their feathers are torn out, and then they’re skinned and dismembered. 

“These inquisitive, smart birds, who can live up to 40 years in nature, are violently killed when they’re only a year old, all for frivolous items that no one should have to die for,” says PETA senior vice president Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on everyone involved in the ostrich supply chain to pivot to animal-free production before these remarkable birds are wiped off the planet entirely.” 

In the wild, ostriches share parental duties, with the camouflaged mother taking care of the eggs during the daytime and the father, who has black feathers, taking night-time duty. One farm manager told PETA’s investigators that he had even witnessed ostriches taking turns fanning each other on hot days. 

PETA Asia – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”– opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA Asia’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow the group on, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. 

#