PETA Disrupts David Jones Over Sale of Wild-Animal Skins, Crashing Burwood Reopening
PETA Disrupts David Jones Over Sale of Wild-Animal Skins, Crashing Burwood Reopening
Sydney – Today, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) supporters crashed the grand reopening of David Jones in Westfield Burwood holding signs reading, “David Jones: Drop Wild-Animal Skins.” The disruptive action was designed to remind those celebrating that despite several closed-door meetings with PETA, David Jones still hasn’t created a policy to ban wild-animal skins. Previous PETA protests targeting David Jones include a window takeover in Sydney and a bloody display with controversial activist Tash Peterson in Perth. Video footage of today’s disruption is available here.
“David Jones can’t feign ignorance – we’ve shown company officials horrific investigation footage that proves how wild animals suffer for accessories made from their skin and were told that the brand’s animal welfare policy prohibits the use of wild-animal skins in its private-label items – but it is still profiting from this abuse,” says PETA Senior Policy [BE2] Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “David Jones must now stop allowing third parties like Gucci and Louis Vuitton to sell wild-animal skins in its stores.”
Several PETA exposés reveal the suffering of wild animals in the skins trade. An investigation in Thailand documented that a crocodile continued to kick their legs and move for at least 23 minutes after a worker violently thrust a metal blade into the animals’ neck to sever their spinal cord. Another revealed slaughterhouse workers in Indonesia bludgeoning pythons while the animals were fully conscious, pumping them full of water without pain relief, and skinning them while they were likely still alive. PETA US investigators caught workers at ostrich abattoirs striking birds in the head before shoving them into stun boxes and slitting their throats.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – urges concerned shoppers to sign its action alert demanding that David Jones bolster its policy on wild-animal skins. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow the group on Facebook and Instagram.
Contact:
Kristen Nelson [email protected]
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