Faced with numerous activist movements in favor of animals, many luxury brands have decided to ignore exotic animal skins for their various products. This is certainly not the case with Hermès who decided to invest in a gigantic crocodile farm project.
A very ambitious project entrusted to a specialist in the field
According to Australian media ABC, the French fashion house Hermès intends to build Australia’s largest crocodile farm. To achieve this ambitious project, Hermès commissioned PRI Farming to proceed with the takeover of The Sweet Life, a property located in Lambells Lagoon, in the Northern Territory. This site, which was once a melon and banana farm, was thus acquired with the collaboration of Mick Burns – also known as Crocodile King and director of PRI Farming – a farmer known in the region for breeding crocodiles.
If the land seems already acquired, the budget necessary for the project could also be estimated, and it amounts to approximately 40 million dollars. This investment will be allocated in particular to the breeding of saltwater crocodiles in order to reach a target of 50,000 individuals in five years of operation. All of these crocodiles will be bred for their skin – to produce leather goods and shoes – and for meat products. The documents submitted to the territory’s Environmental Protection Authority indicate that the farm project will include an egg incubation laboratory, hatchery, grow pens, a refrigerated food preparation site and storage areas.
In its early days, the farm is expected to start with 30 employees and around 4,000 crocodiles, but those numbers are expected to grow very quickly. The scale of the project is such that the Hermès farm will increase the number of farmed crocodiles in the Northern Territory of Australia by 50%. Note that the project has already been submitted and approved by the Government of the Northwest Territories, reported The Guardian. It has also received environmental approval, and all it needs is a wildlife trade permit to start the project.
A project that revolts activists and internet users
As you might expect, this project is a source of controversy, and animal welfare activists were quick to voice their dissatisfaction. Judged ” useless “And” revolting “, The project has indeed aroused many reactions on social networks, reported Mail Online. Some activists have notably argued that other luxury brands – such as Chanel, Versace or Gucci – have been able to do without the use of crocodile skin in their productions, why Hermès could not. For its part, PETA has launched a petition to stop the project.
The organization argued in the defense of crocodiles that such breeding was cruel and potentially dangerous. In a statement, PETA has indeed evoked the fact that ” the international trade in exotic animal skins for luxury fashion fosters the spread of zoonotic diseases, fueling the risk of more pandemics, like the one currently raging “. Until now, Hermès has refused to answer questions about this new project. Moreover, the company planned to ” hide »His involvement in the project by highlighting PRI Farming. Unfortunately, Hermès is not the only one to practice such methods, it is also the case of Louis Vuitton. The two companies control the majority of crocodile farms in the region.