Good news for roos: major soccer boot brands to stop using kangaroo skin!

The tide is finally turning on the biggest land-based slaughter of wildlife in the world – the commercial kangaroo killing industry. Global sporting brands Nike and Puma are the latest to announce they will shift away from this cruel wildlife trade.

Nike – the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes – has heard the calls of thousands of caring people, including many Animals Australia supporters. The brand announced it will stop making shoes out of native Australian wildlife.

This exciting news follows Puma’s decision to phase out products made from kangaroo this year, and the introduction of legislation to ban the import of kangaroo products into the state of Oregon, which is home to one of Nike’s production hubs.

With this monumental step forward for kangaroos, our thanks go to the tireless work of the Center for a Humane Economy for leading the global campaign to urge Nike to spare kangaroos, and to the many thousands of animal advocates around the world who have supported this critical initiative.

Nike and Puma will instead innovate to using “better”, kinder and more sustainable materials  – a move that will help spare kangaroos from being shot and their joeys ‘disposed of’ in horrific ways each night across Australia. Adidas is now the only sporting giant that hasn’t joined this powerful stand for Australian wildlife.

Many people are shocked to learn that the Australian Federal Government allows kangaroos to be killed and turned into sports shoes and ‘pet food’. These native animals are slaughtered for the sake of commercial profit.

Under the guise of a  ‘management plan,’ each state government (except the ACT)  set kill “quotas” for the commercial industry. The methodology used to count kangaroos and inform this ‘management plan’ recently came under fire for its flaws during a 2021 NSW Parliamentary Inquiry.

In reality, no reliable data exists on kangaroo populations, yet they are being killed at an unprecedented rate. Last year in NSW alone, over 40,000 kangaroos were killed per month.

The NSW and Victorian Government’s “kill quota” for the commercial industry in 2023 is over two million kangaroos – 1,850,228 in NSW and 166,750 in VIC.^[1][2] These states have increased the number of kangaroos permitted to be killed from last year without a sound understanding of the impact recent severe floods have had on kangaroo numbers.

If this isn’t awful enough, these staggering numbers do not include joeys, the invisible victims of this industry considered nothing more than ‘collateral damage’ when their mothers are killed.

Thankfully, brands like Nike, Puma, and Intersport are realising that this cruel industry is fast losing its social license. After the EU, the US is the second-largest market for the commercial kangaroo shooting industry, so the domino effect happening with US law-makers proposing bills to ban the import of kangaroo products and the commercial sectors making decisions to end their support of the wildlife trade from Australia is heartening.

1. Add your voice to calls for an end to the commercial slaughter of kangaroos nationwide.
2. Take the pledge to never buy kangaroo meat or other products.
3. Contact ADIDAS and urge them to end their use of kangaroo skins.
4. Watch the acclaimed documentary ‘Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story’ to learn about this well-hidden industry.

REFERENCES

1. NSW Department of Planning and Environment, NSW Commercial Kangaroo Management Program: 2023 Quota Report, NSW Government, <https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/OEH/Corporate-Site/Documents/Animals-and-plants/Wildlife-management/Kangaroo-management/commercial-kangaroo-management-program-2023-quota-report-220649.pdf>

2. VIC Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Kangaroo Harvesting Program zones and quota, VIC Government, <https://www.wildlife.vic.gov.au/our-wildlife/kangaroo-harvesting-program/kangaroo-harvesting-program-zones-and-quota> Last accessed: 24 March 2023.