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Hermes breeds their own crocodiles to meet bag demand

by Amy Judd | June 10, 2009 at 10:14 am

566 views | 26 Recommendations | 7 comments

French fashion giant Hermes has decided to open their own crocodile farms in Australia to meet the heavy demand for their handbags made of crocodile skin.

Customers who order these bags, some at over $48,000 US, can wait several years for their bag.

"It can take three to four crocodiles to make one of our bags so we are now breeding our own crocodiles on our own farms, mainly in Australia," Patrick Thomas told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in Paris.

Hermes already faces a major challenge producing 3,000 crocodile bags a year, Thomas said, adding: "The world is not full of crocodiles, except the stock exchange!"

Crocodile farming is an expensive venture as the reptiles have to be kept apart from each other to protect their skin.

Hermes' leather goods sales amounts to 40 percent of their business, and even the recession has not affected them much as they have employed 50 to 100 leather workers this year, adding to the 2,000 they already have.

PETA has responded with this comment:

The thought of purposely breeding and killing crocodiles for an outdated, overpriced handbag should make any fashionista's skin crawl. If Hermes really wants to be a leader in the fashion industry, it should stop killing animals for cold-blooded vanity and use cruelty-free mock croc and fake snake instead. As Pink—who recently provided the voice of a computer-generated crocodile in PETA's "Stolen for Fashion" commercial—says, "Killing animals for their skins is so disgusting that it doesn't make me want to befriend designers who use them."

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Pythiian1

at 15:25 on June 10th, 2009

There is something wrong with this distasteful picture of Hermes breeding crocodiles to be killed for a bag!

Roy C

at 17:54 on June 10th, 2009

The interesting thing is that when a wild animal is bred for consumption, its survival is guaranteed, unlike in the wild.

So, better to do this than to kill them for bags.

Some say, "Don't kill at all." I don't think that that is going to happen soon.

Rhonda J Mangus

at 19:01 on June 10th, 2009

I agree with Pythiian1, very distasteful. Thanks for this, Amy.

jazzyzazzy

at 23:03 on June 10th, 2009

Urgh!.........I have a saying..............goes like this!....two types of people wear fur .....................BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS........................................AND..............................

UGLY WOMEN.

Tallulah (not verified)

at 04:41 on June 11th, 2009

I think it is atrocious that around 90,000 to 120,000 crocodiles are sacrificed for selfish and rather diabolical reasons like making handbags. Also, they have a rather large profit margin from selling shaped crocodile skins. I personally think it is ethically wrong.

laura recco (not verified)

at 15:02 on June 29th, 2009

I am AGAINST HERMES and invite all person with heart and loving animals and nature to NOT BAY thos eand all productes of hermas.... I hate this cruenty and incivil action , also fo rmoney like in this case.

Matsi (not verified)

at 19:36 on July 15th, 2009

First-That bag is hideous.

Second-Personally, I much rather be EATEN then painfully killed for a freakin' handbag. That's on the same level of putting enemy warriors heads on pikes and parading them around. Even then, at least they died honorable deaths. Imagine, someone pulling your skin off while you're still alive, and then using it to put stuff like make-up in and other crap.

Third-Strange-women-like-me-who-don't-give-a-crap-about-"fashion"-or-any-other-"girly"-things, are awesome.