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PETA Praises L'Oreal For Cutting Ties With World Cup Model After Hunting Photo
facebook.com/Axelle.Despiegelaere
PETA praised L'Oreal for severing ties with viral World Cup model Axelle Despiegelaere after the 17-year-old posted a hunting photo to her Facebook page with a caption about "hunting Americans" ahead of a U.S. soccer match.
The animal rights organization, speaking out for the first time, tells Business Insider: "Shooting animals is just as ugly as shoving chemicals down their throats so we’re delighted to see that L’Oreal is distancing itself from both hunting and animal tests. No one wants to see a model with a make-up brush in one hand and hunting rifle in the other."
Axelle first rose to internet fame after the attractive teen was spotted in the stands of the World Cup rooting for Belgium.
L'Oreal took notice and signed the Belgian teen to a modeling contract, which she announced on her public Facebook page.
www.facebook.com/Axelle.Despiegelaere.Official
Axelle's Facebook page, which she created after returning home to Belgium a viral star and has since deleted following controversy, included photos of her trip to Brazil rooting for her country, enjoying the beach in a bikini, funny photoshops, and the photo of her with a dead oryx:
facebook.com/Axelle.Despiegelaere
The image and caption immediately drew online backlash , and L'Oreal — who had shot a hair tutorial video with Axelle — distanced itself from the model.
"L’Oréal Professionnel Belgium collaborated with her on an ad hoc basis to produce a video for social media use in Belgium," said a representative for the beauty giant last week. "The contract has now been completed."
Although the representative said L'Oreal is aware of the photograph, it would not comment on whether it was the reason behind the decision to cut Axelle's contract.
But a representative did stress to The Independent that L'Oréal "no longer tests on animals, anywhere in the world, and does not delegate this task to others."
In 2012, the beauty giant donated $1.2 million to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help improve the testing of safe chemicals.
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