Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) has snapped up a stake in French luxury goods retailer Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), bolstering its efforts to stop makers of high end leather goods and clothes from using exotic animal skins in production.

Peta – known for staging elaborate protests and publicity stunts – confirmed in a statement on its website that it had bought the shares on Thursday. But the group, which owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Hennessy cognac among other high end brands, did not reveal the size of its holding.

Peta’s stake in the company will give it the right to attend shareholder meetings and question the board.

“Every Peta exposé of the exotic-skins industry has found sensitive living beings crammed into filthy pits, hacked apart, and left to die,” Ingrid Newkirk, the president of Peta, wrote in a statement published on the charity’s website.

“From demonstrating on the street to speaking up in the boardroom, Peta will push LVMH to stop selling any bag, watchband, or shoe made from a reptile’s skin.”

LVMH was not immediately available for comment.

The move by Peta comes in the wake of its investigation into crocodile farms, which have allegedly supplied skins to a tannery owned by LVMH.

The exposé showed the animals are confined to tiny pits and that they are sometimes cut into while still alive.

Last month, Sylvie Bénard, director of environment at LVMH, denied the allegations saying that the group’s tannery in Vietnam had not bought crocodile skins from any Vietnamese farms since 2014.

Where not to visit if you love animals Show all 9 1 /9 Where not to visit if you love animals Where not to visit if you love animals Monkey shows Chimpanzees are forced to perform demeaning tricks on leashes and are often subject to cruel training techniques. Animals who are confined to small, barren enclosures and forced to perform unsurprisingly show symptoms of stress and depression. Chimpanzees have been documented rocking back and forth, sucking their lips, salivating and swaying against enclosure perimeters in distress. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Marine parks Some parks confine orcas to concrete tanks and force them to perform meaningless tricks for food - many die in captivity. Orcas are highly intelligent and social mammals who may suffer immensely, both physically and mentally, when they're held in captivity. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Tiger shows Tigers are forced to live in an unnatural and barren environment and have to endure interactions with a constant stream of tourists. Since tigers never lose their wild instincts, across the world they are reportedly drugged, mutilated and restrained in order to make them “safe” for the public. However, every year, incidents of tiger maulings are reported at this type of tourist attraction. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Donkey rides Sunning on the beach is great for humans – we can take a quick dip or catch a bite to eat when we get too hot or hungry. But it's pure hell for donkeys who are confined to the beach and forced to cart children around on the hot sand. Some donkey-ride operators at beach resorts in the UK even keep the animals chained together at all times. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Swimming with dolphins Some marine parks use bottlenose dolphins in performances and offer visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, people are often unaware that these animals are captured in the wild and torn from their families or traded between different parks around the world. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Canned hunting Lions are confined to fenced areas so that they can easily be cornered, with no chance of escape. Most of them will have been bred in captivity and then taken from their mothers to be hand-reared by the cub-petting industry. When they get too big, they may be drugged before they are released into a "hunting" enclosure. Because these animals are usually kept in fenced enclosures (ranging in size from just a few square yards to thousands of acres), they never stand a chance of surviving. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Running of the Bulls Every year, tourists travel to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. The bulls who are forced to slip and slide down the town's narrow cobblestone streets are chased straight into the bullring. They are then taunted, stabbed repeatedly and finally killed by the matador in front of a jeering crowd. The majority of Spaniards reject bullfighting, but tourists are keeping the cruel industry on its last legs. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Horse-drawn carriages City streets are no place for horses. The animals toil in all weather extremes, suffering from respiratory distress from breathing in exhaust fumes as well as numerous hoof, leg and back problems from walking on pavement all day long. As easily spooked prey animals, horses subjected to the loud noises and unexpected sounds of city streets are likely to be involved in accidents, even deadly ones. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Zoos The zoo community regards the animals it keeps as commodities, and animals are regularly bought, sold, borrowed and traded without any regard for established relationships. Zoos breed animals because the presence of babies draws visitors and boosts revenue, yet often, there's nowhere to put the offspring as they grow, and they are killed, as we saw with Marius the giraffe in Denmark. Some zoos have introduced evening events with loud music and alcohol which disrupt the incarcerated animals even further. EPA

She said at the time: “We have no knowledge of a partner that would practise the method you referred to [. . .] any cruel method involving the suffering of the animal is in clear contradiction with our principles and rules.”