Fashion is what it is! People are willing to wait on the longest lines and for years at a time, to spend outstanding amounts of money for something that is exclusive. Likewise, companies want to be the best provider of their products and/or services, so they may (from time to time) go to extreme lengths to do so. Hermés, the French luxury goods group, has been exposed for the lengths that they have gone to, having resorted to breeding their own crocodiles to meet the demand for its leather bags.

“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,” Chief Executive Patrick Thomas told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in Paris. He went on to say, “The world is not full of crocodiles, except the stock exchange!” Hermés reiterates the saying, “You have to spend money to make money,” as the process of breeding must be costly in itself due to the necessity of  keeping the crocs in separate rooms to protect their skin. As a result, a Hermes leather bag can cost as much as $50,000, accounts for 40% of their business and is consistently growing (Hermes hired 50-100 leather workers this year to add to the 2,000 craftsmen on staff).

We must have been mislead by the definition of “recession.” OBVIOUSLY, there are people who are running laps around the economic crisis that so many of us face on a regular basis. What would the use of animals be without the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? Of course, PETA  jumped on the hot topic with the release of the “Stolen for Fashion” video and the following statement:

“The thought of purposely breeding and killing crocodiles for an outdated, overpriced handbag should make any fashionista’s skin crawl.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.” [source]

And so continues the great discussion over the usage of animal products in the never ending pursuit of trendy fashion and glamourous style.