Mayo model leads protest against exotic skins in fashion

DEAD ostrich protests by the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) charity have been ruffling feathers around the world.

And a Mayo model has been to the forefront in an ongoing campaign against the use of ostrich skin to make designer bags.

Wearing a gruesome twist on Björk's iconic swan dress, 'bleeding' and topless, 29-year-old Jacqueline Joyce, draped with an ostrich 'corpse' and carrying a handbag-shaped sign, led a PETA protest in front of Hermès' boutique on London's New Bond Street to speak out against the use of exotic skins for fashion accessories.

This is just one of a number of protests at locations across the world after PETA's release of the first-ever exposé of the highly secretive industrial ostrich-slaughter industry.

Said Joyce. “With so many high-end and stylish cruelty-free accessories available, we are calling on shoppers to ditch the animal skins and shop vegan.”

Joyce and PETA - whose motto reads, in part, that 'animals are not ours to wear' - have called on all retailers to drop ostrich and other exotic skins.