PETA Undercover Footage narrated by Gillian
Posted at 6:53 AM (PST) on Saturday, January 24, 2009

PETA Targets 'Pinocchio' Armani at Designer's Las Vegas Boutique

Activists Hopping Mad Over Designer's Use of Rabbit Pelts After He Promised to Stop Using Fur

For Immediate Release:
January 23, 2009
PETA Media Center
Contact: Jena Hunt 757-622-7382

Las Vegas -- Holding giant posters showing Giorgio Armani with an elongated Pinocchio nose, PETA members will converge on the Giorgio Armani Boutique in Las Vegas on Monday. Armani made a public promise to stop using fur, but he has broken that promise: His latest collections include jackets trimmed with rabbit fur, fur-hemmed skirts, floral-printed fur coats, and even rabbit-trimmed snowsuits for toddlers.

Where: The Bellagio Resort, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas
When: Monday, January 26, 12 noon

PETA will show shoppers new undercover footage (narrated by Gillian Anderson), which reveals the horrendous conditions on fur farms in China and France--countries from which Armani buys rabbit fur. In the video footage, rabbits twitch and shake after their throats are cut. Workers at the Chinese farm pull rabbits out of cages by their ears and stun them with electrical devices as the animals scream.

Many top fashion designers--including Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney, Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger--are 100 percent fur-free.

"To satisfy the whims of luxury, Armani is sentencing countless rabbits--one of the gentlest species--to a horrific life and a violent death in China, a country with no animal protection laws," says PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews.

For more information, please visit PETA's Web site FurIsDead.com. For a photo-quality image of "Pinocchio" Armani, please click here.