Animal rights pressure group Peta
has bought shares in Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH) in order to
pressure it to stop selling bags and other products made from exotic
animal skins.
The stake in the French luxury group will give Peta
the right to attend shareholder meetings and question the board in
front of other shareholders.
Peta has not said how many shares it has bought.
Such a move is common among pressure groups.
The
move by Peta - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - follows
its investigation into the way that crocodile skin, which is often used
for luxury goods, is harvested.
Peta said: "In the wake of an
exposé revealing that reptiles on crocodile farms in Vietnam - including
two that have supplied skins to a tannery owned by Louis Vuitton's
parent company, LVMH - are confined to tiny pits and sometimes hacked
into while they're still alive and thrashing, Peta has become a
shareholder of LVMH on the Euronext Paris to put pressure on the company
to stop selling exotic skins merchandise."
Commenting when
Peta's video was released last month, LVMH's director of environment,
Sylvie Bernard, said that its tannery, Heng Long, had not bought
crocodile skins from any Vietnamese farms since 2014.
"We have no
knowledge of a partner that would practice the method you referred
to ... any cruel method involving the suffering of the animal is in
clear contradiction with our principles and rules," she said.
LVMH
is the world's biggest luxury group. Its brands include Louis Vuitton
handbags, several Champagne brands, Hennessy cognac and fashion labels
Fendi and Marc Jacobs.
The company also sells perfumes, cosmetics, watches and jewellery.
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