A handful of PETA animal rights activists will target South Coast Plaza’s Louis Vuitton store on Friday to protest the luxury store’s sale of crocodile-skin handbags.
The protesters are expected to converge outside the boutique around noon wearing only green and brown bodypaint and urge shoppers not to purchase products made of tormented animals.
Two bloody crocodiles will hang out of an oversized purse with the phrase: “Louis Vuitton: A Look That Kills.”
“Every crocodile-skin handbag represents the hideously gruesome death of a sensitive animal,” said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in a statement.
On Thursday, May 4, the group released a video of crocodile farms in Vietnam where the reptiles are viciously killed. Two of the farms have supplied crocodile skins to Louis Vuitton’s parent company, the statement said.
Workers in the video are seen hacking into the crocodiles’ necks and ramming metal rods down their spines.
“PETA is calling on shoppers to keep reptiles’ blood off their hands by choosing vegan clothing and accessories,” Reiman said.
Calls and emails to Louis Vuitton were not immediately returned.
PETA has targeted South Coast Plaza before. In 2010, activists stood in front of Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s on Black Friday with signs that read, “Fur is dead” and passed out literature to shoppers.
In 2013, a band of Santas held signs outside the shopping center urging shoppers to buy vegan. Several PETA members protested Hermes after the store’s suppliers allegedly mistreated alligators.
Last month, PETA pledged to donate $5,000 toward Councilman John Stephens July 4 celebration. The group praised Stephens plan to use silent fireworks, which it said was better for cats and dogs.