Review of LVMH a European manufacturer

Based in France, LVMH is a European producer of high-end goods. With a history spanning more than 50 years, it has a wide range of interests, including those in perfumes, cosmetics, and beverages like wine and spirits. The sector that deals with fashion and leather goods, particularly in terms of how animals are treated ethically, is the main area of concern and has prompted many ethical debates.

PETA expresses concerns, particularly with regard to crocodile farms in Vietnam that provide hides to one of the numerous tanneries run by LMVH. The habitat in which the animals are bred is the first matter of concern. “Small concrete cells where the crocodiles are mostly found lying motionless…” The Daily Mail (2016 ) is the sight you will meet in these farms. It is reported in video documentaries that the animals are kept in the cells for about fifteen months before they are shipped off to the slaughter houses.

The animals are killed by ramming metal rods on their backs, majorly dislocating their spines. While this method is guaranteed to kill the animal at the very least, ethical concerns arise on whether it is the best of methods they could use. The death is slow, and video evidence by PETA shows a crocodile still mobile after it has been skinned. Reptile experts confirm that the animals are capable of remaining in a conscious state even hours after their spines are broken, or after their veins have been cut open, which makes the method inhumane.

The Daily Mail reports that this form of treatment of animals is reported, not only in the crocodile farms allied to the conglomerate but also in other mainstream farms that supply the company such as ostrich farms that supply feathers. Getting a glimpse of the ill-treatment going on here, it is next to impossible not to imagine just how ill-treated the animals are. Yes, the animals, in the end, make the company billions of returns regarding profit. Even if there are no clearly defined animal rights and laws to be against the deeds by these companies, ethics still view the activities as vile.

The conditions in which the animals are raised, jammed pools and small concrete cells, violate the very idea that the animals are still alive. They are kept only alive enough to grow to size for slaughter. They are regarded as goods, not living entities. As such, the moral question to the deed is on whether the company cannot invest just a little more for the comfort of the animals.

The primary motive of the company is to maximize profits. In so doing, it is allied to methods of killing the subject animals that are vile in nature. Ethics of right and wrong demand that the animals be killed in a less painful manner, their conditions of living improved and basic raising conditions be monitored. Altogether, it is advocated that animal materials used in mainstream products of luxury be stopped altogether, if the animals cannot be sufficiently raised in favorable conditions to meet the available demand as per the market requirements.

”Just how ethical is it to carry a high-end handbag, put on an exquisite design leather strap; to know that you led to the brutal murder of an animal,” COHEN, C., & REGAN, T. (2001). 

List of References

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COHEN, C., & REGAN, T. (2001). The animal rights debate. Lanham [u.a.], Rowman & Littlefield.

The Daily Mail, Visited on 18/2/2017 at 10:42 AM

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