PETA Lauds Mill Valley Company For Ditching Exotic Skins

MILL VALLEY, CA — A Mill Valley company will cease using exotic skins amid growing pressure from animal rights activists, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a statement.

As a show of gratitude for no longer using exotic skins in its designs, PETA sent Samuel Hubbard Shoe Company a box of vegan alligator-shaped chocolates as a show of thanks.

“Alligators, snakes, and crocodiles don’t ask that we think of them as cute or cuddly—they just want us to leave them in peace,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a statement.

“Samuel Hubbard made a compassionate choice by ditching an industry that inflates, beats, and electroshocks sensitive animals, and PETA encourages shoppers to stick to retailers that reject exotic skins.”

PETA Asia cited its own investigation into a farm in Vietnam that supplies snakeskin for use in the global leather industry revealed widespread cruelty to snakes, including sealing their mouths and anuses with rubber bands and then inflating them to death with an air compressor, crushing their heart and causing severe pain.

The animal rights groups recently obtained new video footage it says came from a farmer demonstrating the slaughter of crocodiles, showing piles of animals who’d been wrapped in bags, their mouths tied shut, so they couldn’t move.

The video shows a worker walking on top of the animals and crudely stunning them. Other workers are seen stabbed them with a metal blade.

Despite the attempt to stun them, they were still seen moving as workers attempted to kill them.

Samuel Hubbard joins Brooks Brothers, Jil Sander, Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, HUGO BOSS, Victoria Beckham, Vivienne Westwood, Phillips-Van Heusen, and many other companies in banning exotic skins.

Samuel Hubbard announced in a blog post Tuesday that it was entering its “next phase in creating sustainable shoes and reducing” its carbon footprint.

The company cited commitments to mindfulness and ethical manufacturing but did not specifically mention its commitment to discontinuing use of exotic skins.

“It’s our belief that ethical manufacturing is a requirement for sustainability within the shoe industry,” the company wrote.

“We often get asked where our shoes are made, and we can proudly respond, ‘Portugal and Brazil.’

“We chose these locations because of their environmental and labor regulations, as well as their excellent shoemaking skills. Workers receive government-provided healthcare, several weeks vacation, paid holidays, and adequate breaks during working hours. Factories are required to recycle or repurpose scrap material, are monitored by environmental agencies, and look out for the welfare of their communities. Shoes are handcrafted by artisans, supporting generations of shoemaking families."