PETA Global AU 2024 Issue 3

Survival at

FROGS’ LEGS BELONG ON FROGS From Chinatown to the Champs-Élysées

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PETA entity supporters pressured Carrefour stores from Lyon to Jakarta to stop selling frogs’ legs from Indonesia.

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Into Somethings Bludgeoned Someones for Gucci, YSL, Others! Thousands of HOW CROCODILES AND PYTHONS BECOME PURSES AND SHOES T I G A T I O N • P E T A A S I A I N V E S T I G A T I O

Frog: © Rehan Shoukat/Shutterstock.com

Python: © Agus_Gatam/Shutterstock.com

Curry: iStock.com/VeselovaElena • Chickens: © We Animals Media

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Sold as ‘Delicacies’ While Their Populations Dwindle The main market for frogs’ legs is France, where they’re considered a delicacy. Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of frogs’ legs, sells hundreds of millions of them to distributors in the EU every year. And the damage wrought by this industry extends beyond the nightmare it inflicts on frogs. Indonesian suppliers deliberately mislabel the frog species they sell, and research from various sources has shown that frog populations in Indonesia have declined in recent decades. If this trend continues, problems stemming from ecological imbalance – such as an increased use of pesticides due to a lack of insects’ natural predators – will inevitably develop. Putting Grocers on Notice PETA Asia’s investigation made a splash in France when Le Monde , the country’s most widely read newspaper, published its shocking findings. In the wake of PETA Asia’s exposé, French supermarket retailers Auchan and Système U suspended their orders with the supplier implicated in the investigation and Carrefour introduced a permanent policy against sourcing frogs’ legs from Indonesia.

It’s filth and barbarism, not “luxury.”

PETA Asia’s investigators got inside two massive python factory farms

Workers bashed struggling pythons on the head with a hammer.

that supply skins to Caravel, a tannery owned by Kering, the parent company of Gucci , Yves Saint Laurent , Bottega Veneta , and other brands. One of these operations estimated that it had 15,000 pythons at the time of the investigation. Workers pinned struggling pythons by the neck and smashed them over the head with a hammer before driving metal hooks through their heads. To make the skins easier to remove, they inflated the snakes with water – even as the pythons continued to move. Dr Clifford Warwick , a reptile expert who reviewed PETA Asia’s new video footage, says it’s likely that most of the snakes were conscious during this excruciatingly painful process . Disgusting, Not Desirable PETA Asia’s investigators also visited a farm that confines thousands of crocodiles to pits filled with fetid green water. Workers there used metal blades to crudely hack into crocodiles’ necks – and one crocodile continued to move for

This crocodile continued to move for more than 20 minutes after being stabbed in the neck.

Many frogs were still alive and moving when workers tore away their skin.

damages their spinal cord, causing paralysis and likely extreme pain but not death, according to Dr Warwick. Crocodiles may remain alive for more than 90 minutes after this horror. Previous investigations by PETA entities have shown lizards struggling as workers repeatedly hacked at their necks with machetes and alligators flailing and kicking for minutes after workers tried to kill them. Animals’ Skin Belongs Only to Them Dozens of studies show that reptiles experience “anxiety, stress, distress, excitement, fear, frustration, pain, and suffering.” Mother pythons carefully hide their eggs if they can and stay at their nest for months until the eggs hatch, keeping them warm by continually contracting their muscles. Crocodiles have such a varied vocabulary – they communicate through hisses, growls, bellows, and coughs as well as by spouting water and blowing bubbles – that researchers in Australia are trying to create a crocodile dictionary. Be Part of It! After hearing from PETA, Burberry , Chanel , Diane von Furstenberg , HUGO BOSS , Tory Burch , and other top brands banned exotic skins. Please visit PETA.org.au/ThaiSkins to urge Kering to do the same. And ask everyone you know to buy and wear only vegan clothes and accessories.

F rogs are fascinating, feeling individuals, and many of them are devoted and resourceful parents. Some male frogs are regular “Mr Moms,” with Dad ferrying each of his tadpoles on his back to their own little puddle. Frogs have personalities that range from bold and active to peaceful and relaxed, and they communicate through a rich variety of whistles, chirps, croaks, ribbits, clucks, peeps, barks, and grunts. Yet PETA Asia investigators found that throughout Indonesia, these sensitive amphibians are snatched from their natural homes, crammed into sacks, and violently dismembered – all so their legs can be sold to restaurants. Their suffering starts the moment they’re grabbed by workers, who stuff them into crowded sacks, where they remain for up to two agonizingly long days, many of them slowly suffocating. PETA Asia investigators saw a worker slamming live frogs onto the ground while sorting the living ones from the dead and workers hacking at their heads with knives. Many of them were still alive and moving when workers tore them apart and ripped off their skin. Investigators documented that frogs’ mouths opened and closed after decapitation and that their headless bodies continued to move for minutes after they were slaughtered.

But that’s not enough. Frogs’ legs should be dropped from every menu.

Be Part of It! When you see cruelly produced items on a menu, complain! PETA often hears from supporters making their wishes known. And please don’t eat any animals’ body parts: Get a free vegan starter kit at PETA.org.au/VSK . who have gotten dishes pulled by

more than 20 minutes while being skinned alive. Stabbing crocodiles in the neck severs or badly

Lives lost: skinned snakes

Workers used knives to hack at frogs’ heads and feet.

This horror isn’t isolated: PETA Asia investigators found egregious cruelty to frogs in every randomly selected facility they visited in Indonesia.

Global

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BEINGS, NOT BAGS OR BITES

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