PETA’s Here to Tell You How Crocodiles Die For $150,000 Hermes Birkin Bags

PETA, or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, just posted a video to their website that goes deep on the provenance of one of the most luxurious animal skins: alligators. A PETA investigator heads to Zimbabwe, in Africa, and Texas, in the United States, to expose the harsh treatment that these animals go through before being turned into not just this season’s must-have accessory, but what fashion loves to call a classic.

The video is certainly not for the squeamish (although maybe because alligators are considered predators and not cute little bunnies, their executions seem a lot less intense than other animal abuse videos that have hit the internet in recent years). The alligators are kept in concrete pits surrounding a pool of water, nowhere near as glamorous as the leather-filled shops in which they’re skins will end up. The most puzzling thing about all of this is that they have not figured out a more effective way to kill the animals; the process is unnecessarily arduous (for the animals of course, but also the humans whose job it is to kill them!), and in the meantime, the animals suffer very violent deaths.

Their gruesome deaths are worth thousands and thousands of dollars – Birkin bags can cost up to $150,000. (Unlike when PETA investigated fake fur jackets at mass department stores and found out that many of them were made of dogs and foxes.) It seems unlikely that luxury companies will stop using exotic skins, but there’s certainly got to be a better way for these animals to be treated. We have free-range chickens, why not free-range crocs?

If you’re the kind of person who’s going to buy pay the price of a house for a crocodile skin Birkin, you’re probably not the kind of person who’s going to watch a PETA video, but they’re sure as hell going to try to make you.

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