Trading in the crocodile, alligator, lizard and python skins often used to make watch straps involves a labyrinthine process of documentation.

Pythons are bashed with hammers, impaled on hooks and skinned alive to provide skins used by French luxury brand Gucci, according to PETA.

The billion-dollar global trade in python skins is often illegal and inhumane - and is threatening the survival of some species, says a new report.

Similarly, luxury wear items – such as exotic giraffe leather boots in Texas, python skin jackets in Milan and fur coats in Florida – are a way of dressing to impress others.

A British woman who illegally imported and sold fashion accessories made from python skin was convicted on Friday, London police said.

Customs officers check python skin in a suspected company in Haikou, South China's Hainan province, Jan 30, 2016. A total of 24,697 pieces of smuggled python skin worth of 310 million yuan ($47.8 ...

Customs officers check python skin in a suspected company in Haikou, South China's Hainan province, Jan 30, 2016. A total of 24,697 pieces of smuggled python skin worth of 310 million yuan ($47.8 ...

Chinese authorities have recovered a massive haul of smuggled python skin worth $48 million, Chinese media reported on Monday, highlighting the scope of an international black market trade in the ...