PETA Asia has released video footage showing how snakes are abused and killed in Indonesia so that their skins can be sold to fashion brands.

In the slaughterhouse, employees hit pythons on the head with a hammer and hung them on a scaffold by driving a nail through their head into a wooden board – all while the animals were fully conscious.

The footage then shows employees inserting tubes into the snakes’ mouths or chopping off their tails and tying off their cloacal openings to pump them full of water, as this makes it easier to skin the animals. The animals are forced to endure all this while fully conscious and without pain relief. Workers then skin the snakes while the animals are likely still alive.

Exposés Reveal Horrific Truths

The footage is reminiscent of similar exposés of Indonesian slaughterhouses released in 2021, which highlighted that snakes in the exotic-skins industry are pumped up with an air compressor before being skinned. The investigations exposed the practices of suppliers to LVMH – owner of Louis Vuitton.

As Fatal as Fur

In the same way human demand for fur kills the animal it was stolen from, using snakeskin for fashion results in the painful death of snakes. If you wouldn’t wear fur, don’t wear exotic skins.

Designers Must Drop Exotic Skins

Torturing animals for handbags or boots is archaic and unacceptable – especially when high-end vegan options are available. Fashion should be fun, not fatal, and it’s high time that the fashion industry renounced exotic skins for good.

Designers who have banned the use of exotic skins from their collections include Mulberry, Victoria Beckham, Chanel, and Paul Smith.

How You Can Help

Never buy exotic skins, and urge these brands to join the growing list of designers who opt for vegan-friendly alternatives: