PETA Steps Up Pressure on David Jones to Stop Selling Wild-Animal Skins, Crashing Bourke Street Store
Melbourne – Today, PETA supporters holding signs reading, “David Jones Has Blood On Its Hands” and Wild-Animal Skins Kill,” crashed the retail giant’s Bourke Street store to urge it to stop selling the skins of tormented snakes, crocodiles, and other wildlife. The action is part of a series of PETA protests designed to alert the public to the fact that, despite several closed-door meetings with PETA, David Jones still hasn’t created a policy to ban wild-animal skins. Other 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 the disruption is available here.
“David Jones can’t feign ignorance – we have shown company executives 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 the abuse,” says PETA Senior Policy 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 exposés released by PETA 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 animal’s 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. Meanwhile, PETA US investigators caught workers at ostrich abattoirs striking birds on 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 onFacebook and Instagram.
Contact:
Kristen Nelson [email protected]
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