Carla Bruni-Sarkozy v. PETA: free shoes for anyone wearing leather

Barack Obama meets for bilateral talks with Nicolas Sarkozy in Caen
French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is trying to win over People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and it’s sort of working. Carla wrote a letter to PETA claiming that she does not buy or wear fur, and she only wears skin/leather products of animals “raised for feeding purposes.” Which makes sense in the larger view – use all parts of the animal, if an animal has to die, make sure everything is being utilized so there’s no waste. Except that how does Carla (or anyone for that matter) know if the leather products come from animals that are also being used for food? There’s the “cruelty-free” label, but from my understanding, that’s just for leather harvested from “naturally deceased animals.” Perhaps Carla thinks that if she’s wearing leather from cows, naturally, all of those cows have been made into a nice juicy steak. Mmm… steak.

PETA actually contained themselves when Carla admitted in the letter that she was not a vegetarian. PETA spokesperson Dan Matthews was able to get a handle on himself and managed not to scream, “No one can ever eat meat, ever, ever, ever!” Matthews only picked up on the leather stuff – he says that PETA is sending over some Stella McCartney non-leather shoes so Carla can “see that no animals have to be fashion victims.” Uh… if I send a letter to PETA telling them that I don’t wear fur (which is totally true), will they send me a pair of Stella McCartney shoes?

FRANCE’S Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has captured the hearts of animal activists in a big way.

In a letter to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, France’s first lady writes: “I do not wear, buy or own fur or animal skin other than leather or skin of animals raised for feeding purposes. I am not a vegetarian and I don’t find it illogical to wear skins of animals whose meat is also eaten.”

She adds: “I would gladly consider giving away sable, fox and other fur coats — if I owned any.”

PETA honcho Dan Mathews is impressed. “Carla’s obviously for ward-thinking,” he told us. “And when she gets the chic, non-leather shoes we’re sending from Stella McCartney’s Paris boutique, we’re confident she’ll see that no animals have to be fashion victims.”

[From Page Six]

I want a pair of shoes! PETA, I don’t wear fur! But I have a lot of leather shoes and purses – so maybe a couple of pretty non-leather purses from Hermes, or something?

It’s interesting that PETA decided to send Carla a pair of shoes – she recently gave an interview where she admitted she really regrets the focus on her flat footwear. She (and the international press) are obsessed with how she towers over her husband, and Carla has taken to wearing flats almost all of the time. Also, if you want to see some cool pictures of Carla and Michelle Obama’s“fashion face-off” in France this past weekend, Huffington Post had some good fashion coverage.

Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy receive Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in Caen

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15 Responses to “Carla Bruni-Sarkozy v. PETA: free shoes for anyone wearing leather”

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  1. clare says:

    Why does she want to get mixed up with PETA in the first place?

  2. anna says:

    Her name is Michelle Obama, NOT Osama.

    Unless the typo was done accidentally on purpose…

  3. meeps says:

    I hope that’s a seriously unfortunate spelling error in Michelle Obama’s name. But then again, s is nowhere near b on the keyboard. WTF?

  4. Sauronsarmy says:

    Exactly. Why does anybody (atleast people with some common sense) want to get involed with PETA, when there are organizations that actually care for animals?

  5. Katharine Jaynes says:

    osama????

  6. Kaiser says:

    Hold up, everyone! We’re correcting it, it just takes a second.

  7. meeps says:

    Ok thanks, forgiven. Still love ya!

  8. Kaiser says:

    I have a fancy new computer with fancy new spellcheck, and it changed “Obama” into “Osama” and I didn’t catch it. My apologies, people.

  9. truth-SF says:

    8.Kaiser:
    June 10th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    I have a fancy new computer with fancy new spellcheck, and it changed “Obama” into “Osama” and I didn’t catch it. My apologies, people.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Are you sure you didn’t buy that computer from a Republican, lol. Just Kidding. I am, after all, an Independant.

  10. QB says:

    She will not wear then unless they are dior or hermes. She uses a lot of products that are silk , don’t PETA feel sorry for the poor Silk Worms and she also had a bag made out of crocodile skin. If they are not furry and cute PETA does not care .

  11. Ling says:

    Why such a panic over Obama/Osama? It’s just a name. Many of my best friends are Osamas, and only a few of them are terrorists.

    Well, that was a joke (and a quote, kisses to whoever recognizes it.) But you get my point. It’s a common name in the muslim world.

  12. House M says:

    “I have a fancy new computer with fancy new spellcheck, and it changed “Obama” into “Osama” and I didn’t catch it. My apologies, people.”

    Don’t worry, we’re alla used to it. You know what it said about spellchecks : “trash OUT but trash IN”. You remove one and the machine adds 3!

    I did one day a muche more terrible “correction”. But Osama is present in all spellchecks in all languages, Obama not yet, his international “career” is shorter, ha ha!

    Love ya, continue your SUPER job!

  13. Ned says:

    It has come to a point in which people are rooting for people to take on PETA.

    They have gone too far. Nobody owes them any explanation.

    In case they didn’t notice we are using nature all the time, our houses have wood, made out of lovely trees that did less harm than many animals.

    Are we going to police furniture now?

    They could have foced on treatment and cruelty (how about what they do with horses?), but they are all over the place.

    Enough with this BS already.

  14. patty phee says:

    peta is great. finally people who DO something. not just collecting money and talk sht. and…to send stars shoes like they do (and they get those shoes as a gift from stella…the same with ads from advertising agencies…paper from the paper industry and so on) is a good thing because those stars are “idols” for some. so why just don’t start there?

  15. Kristine says:

    Just because someone likes leather and eats meet doesn’t mean they care any less than someone who is a vegan and into leather alternatives. I’ve dedicated many years to helping animals even opened my home to homeless pets. Peta makes me feel like I am less of an animal activist just because I choose to live my life less restricted. I think if Peta toned down their criteria for being an animal lover, so many more people would support their cause both in the business and social sector. The bigger picture at the end is making a difference and you do that by respecting median view points not extremes. At the end of the day we all care for animals and have the same goal. Peta stop giving the rest of us the cold shoulder making us look less compassionate.