Are snakes killed “humanely” for Gucci’s exotic-skin products? See what PETA Asia found at facilities supplying python skins to Gucci’s parent company, Kering. Yet according to a former top-selling Gucci sales associate, the brand tells consumers a load of lies. Tracy Cohen, who reports selling nearly $50 million in goods over the course of her nearly 18-year career, is taking aim at the fashion house in a consumer fraud and deceptive practices class-action lawsuit.

How PETA Asia’s Python Investigation Is Linked to the Lawsuit

In the lawsuit, Cohen asserts that she was instructed to tell customers that Gucci’s python-skin products were obtained through the “natural shedding process”—then she learned of PETA Asia’s investigation into python farms linked to Gucci’s owner, Kering, workers were caught bashing live snakes in the head with a hammer, punching metal hooks through their heads, and inflating their bodies with water—even as the animals continued to move about.

Cohen says in the lawsuit that had she known the truth—which is that animals are being violently killed for Gucci’s products—she would never have deceived customers by performing Gucci’s elaborate “selling ceremony” or personally purchased python-skin bags and shoes for her own use.

Gucci Slammed With Lawsuit Over Deceptive Selling Ceremony

The lawsuit describes how during Gucci’s “selling ceremony” for potential customers, employees put on black gloves to present products and tell customers that the skins were sourced “ethically,” that the animals were not “tortured,” and that the skins were a “byproduct of the food industry.”

There’s Nothing Fashionable About Killing Animals: Take Action

PETA commends Cohen for exposing how Gucci deceives its customers and its staff about the cruel, violent methods used to kill pythons for accessories. You can help, too! Tell Kering to stop selling anything made from the skins of pythons and other animals through Gucci and all its other brands. And make sure you tell everyone you know about this issue so they won’t buy anything made from animals again.

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