During a Dior fashion show in Paris that took place in an open tent during a rainstorm, eight escaramuzas – women who do daredevil stunts while riding horses sidesaddle – performed as models walked the runway.
The riders "performed crisscross maneuvers at breakneck pace as torrents of water thundered down around them," the New York Times reported.
As they rode, the women whipped the horses with such force that one famous audience member, Paris Jackson, got upset with how the animals were being treated and walked out.
Sign the petition if you don't want Dior to endanger and harm animals in its fashion shows.
Why would Dior put the horses, riders and audience members at risk? The designer Maria Grazia Chiuri told British Vogue the message was "not about horses – it is more about the idea that women can do things that they want – like rodeo."
Escaramuza is a women-only event in Mexico that's held within a charrería, the country's national sport that's similar to a rodeo. In Mexico, the United States and other parts of the world, animals are treated cruelly in rodeos for the entertainment of audiences. Because rodeos are so abusive to animals, they've been banned in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and other areas.
If Chiuri and Dior wanted to show that women can do things they want, there were much better and much more humane ways to illustrate this than with rodeo riders. If enough of us sign on, they will have to acknowledge this.
Please sign and share this petition telling Christian Dior Couture to stop using live animals and promoting animal abuse in its fashion shows.
