Press / David Jones Commits to Shedding Wild-Animal Skins Following Push From PETA

David Jones Commits to Shedding Wild-Animal Skins Following Push From PETA

Sydney – After months of campaigning by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) – including an action alert that garnered over 10,000 signatures  from concerned shoppers – Australia’s oldest department store, David Jones, has informed the group that it will ban the sale of wild-animal skins in its 41 stores and on its popular website. To thank the company for this move, PETA has sent a box of crocodile-shape vegan chocolates.

“PETA and our supporters have consistently urged David Jones to do the right thing by sentient snakes, crocodiles, ostriches, and other animals who didn’t want to die,” says PETA Senior Policy Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “We applaud David Jones for its compassionate decision and urge retailers everywhere to follow its lead.”

David Jones’ decision comes after PETA held closed-door meetings with the company, numerous store disruptions, a window display takeover, and a protest in which controversial activist Tash Peterson dressed as a bloodied snake outside the retailer’s Perth store. PETA has also shared investigation footage showing how the fashion industry hacks at crocodiles’ necks and shoves metal rods down their spines, chops off conscious lizards’ heads with machetes, and pumps snakes full of water to loosen their skin before it’s torn off – often while the animals are still conscious.

In expanding its animal welfare policy to ban the sale of wild-animal skins by third-party sellers, David Jones joins department stores such as Macy’s, Selfridges, Nordstrom, and Myer, alongside dozens of top designers – including Burberry, Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, HUGO BOSS, and Vivienne Westwood – that have banned the sale of skins torn from reptiles and other wild animals.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow PETA on Facebook and Instagram.

Contact:

Sascha Camilli [email protected]

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