“LVMH and Gucci are on the wrong side of history as long as they sell items made from animals who were beaten, sliced open, and hacked apart while still likely clinging to life.”

Two major fashion houses have been accused of making bags, belts, and wallets using leather from snakes and lizards that are inhumanely and unethically killed.

In a first-of-its-kind, PETA Asia investigators visited two Indonesian slaughterhouses to document abject cruelty of the factories supplying raw materials to Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

Covert footage revealed workers beating the reptiles with hammers and machetes, slicing them open with razorblades, and even skinning the animals while they were likely still alive.

Workers at facilities that supply LVMH—which owns Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Celine— were seen striking pythons repeatedly on the head, then suspending them in the air and forcing hoses down their throats to inflate them with water, making it easier to remove their skin.

The other slaughterhouse, which supplies raw materials to Gucci had workers bashing lizards in the head with machetes. Video clippings showed them hacking at the reptiles’ necks multiple times before cutting off their legs and dunking conscious and struggling lizards into buckets of water.

“Because of their unique physiology, lizards do not die instantaneously after being decapitated and their brains can remain conscious and fully able to feel pain for over 30 minutes,” PETA said in a statement.

“The videos captured two instances in which lizards’ heads continued to move after they’d been hacked off from the rest of the body.”

According to the charity, this is the first time they have been able to expose how reptiles used in the luxury fashion industry are slaughtered.

“We have documented evidence of cruelty to reptiles in the supply chain for years,” PETA spokeswoman Ashley Byrne told The Post, “but this is the first time we could expose how they are killed. This footage is straight out of a horror movie.”

Warning: The video contains footage that may be upsetting to some.

PETA and LVMH supply chain

This is not the first time that PETA has exposed cruelty in LVMH’s supply chain. An earlier PETA Asia investigation into crocodile farms in Vietnam that supplied skins to the company showed thousands of reptiles lying motionless in filthy, cramped concrete pits, some narrower than the length of their own bodies.

In another instance, PETA US obtained footage of ostriches – whose skin is used for bumpy-textured purses sold by Louis Vuitton – showing that they’re kept in barren dirt feedlots for about a year before being sent to slaughter.

Wrong side of history

In a statement, PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said: “LVMH and Gucci are on the wrong side of history as long as they sell items made from animals who were beaten, sliced open, and hacked apart while still likely clinging to life.

“PETA is calling on these companies to stop profiting from pythons and lizards’ misery and end exotic-skin sales.”

Response

Both companies released statements after PETA President Ingrid Newkirk sent letters to the executives of LVMH and Kering- the parent company of Gucci – urging them to stop using exotic animal skins.

Kering, which stopped using fur in September said that “while we have taken these allegations very seriously, there is no evidence that Kering brands are directly or indirectly connected with this facility or those practices. Such practices are strictly forbidden by Kering’s animal welfare standards.”

A Kering spokeswoman told The Post the company had launched an internal investigation. “Should there be a proven connection between this facility and our supply chain, we would immediately terminate the business relationship,” she said.

 “We are committed to continuously enhance traceability and animal welfare in our supply chains.”

LVMH also released a statement to the publication, which read: “LVMH respects all views and sensitivities on the use of animal-based raw materials and we support and are actively involved in the sector’s efforts to achieve the best possible practices.

“Our intention is to provide customers with a product that has been made in the most responsible and ethical manner possible.”

• Read: Damning footage reveals abhorrent animal cruelty at turkey farm linked to supermarkets

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Mohsina Dodhiya

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