NAIDOC Week: Australian Aboriginal Conservationist Challenges LVMH on Wild-Animal Skins

07.07.2026

Sydney – “Seeing their spirits crushed and defeated before my eyes” is how Australian Aboriginal photographer Donny Imberlong describes his experience working on a crocodile farm, one of around 20 in Australia, which supplies 60% of the global market. This NAIDOC Week (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Day Observance Committee), Imberlong has written a letter on behalf of PETA, where he has shared his testimony with Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury group LVMH, which continues to use wild-animal skins.

A member of the Jaru people, Donny Imberlong grew up regarding crocodiles as kin, observing the intelligence of these ancient animals and the attentive care mothers give to their young. But in his youth, he worked on an intensive crocodile farm in Australia’s Northern Territory – one he describes as similar to those owned by LVMH. There, he witnessed horrific conditions: seeing the animals confined to concrete pits filled with stagnant water, crammed into cramped cages, then electrocuted and violently killed for their skins, long before the end of their natural lifespan.

“Mr Arnault, I’ve seen the reality behind Louis Vuitton’s ‘Speedy’ crocodile bags. It’s cruel and exploits these animals,” writes Imberlong. “Real conservation doesn’t kill, and wildlife will never be protected when you put a price tag on their heads while parading their skins on catwalks.”

Today, Donny Imberlong has traded the slaughterhouse for a camera and documents the lives of crocodiles on the traditional lands of the Miriwoong Gajerrong people, where he lives. His work highlights the beauty and dignity of these iconic animals, whom he now strives to protect – he is the subject of the documentary Skin Deep, which explores the impact of crocodile farming on conservation.

“Every crocodile-skin bag represents lives violently cut short for profit and vanity,” says PETA Executive Agent Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA is calling on LVMH to turn away from these cruel and outdated practices and to adopt innovative, ethical materials in line with today’s consumer expectations.”

Several PETA exposés have exposed how workers in the fashion industry hack at crocodiles’ necks and shove metal rods down their spines. Additional footage from the Australian organisation Defend the Wild, filmed in intensive farms in Australia, reveals animals crowded into bleak enclosures or cages, dragged, electrocuted, mutilated, and stabbed with blades or screwdrivers.

PETA notes that many other major designers, including Chanel, Balenciaga, Burberry, Mulberry, Victoria Beckham, Diane von Furstenberg, and Vivienne Westwood, have banned the use of wild-animal skins.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a crocodile is a dog is a boy.For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow PETA on Facebook and Instagram.

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