|
National legislation to ban trade in all kangaroo parts boosted by March announcements from Nike, Puma to stop sourcing skins for soccer cleats from the iconic marsupials.
Dear John,
Recently, we announced new bipartisan legislation to bar any trade in kangaroo parts in the United States. It’s H.R. 4995, the Kangaroo Protection Act of 2023, and was introduced by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., Troy Carter, D-La., and Tom Kean, R-N.J. U.S. Senate legislation will soon follow.
H.R. 4995’s introduction comes four months after Puma announced it would purge its supply chains of kangaroo skins. Nike, one of the best-known brands in the world, followed suit days later, proclaiming it “will stop making any product with kangaroo leather in 2023.”
These companies have an enormous global footprint and for decades they had used kangaroo skins for the uppers of soccer cleats. Due to the force of our Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign—focusing on manufacturers of the key equipment for the world’s most popular sport—some of these big brands decided to mend their ways.
While the announcements from Nike and Puma—and the Italy-based Diadora two years earlier—are positive, there’s more work to be done, especially with Adidas. That Germany-based company, which has caused so much harm to kangaroos, increasingly looks like an outlier in the athletic shoe world.
Adidas already understands it cannot legally sell kangaroo-based shoes in California because of a state law we are helping to see enforced. And with the new federal Kangaroo Protection Act, now Adidas knows that Members of Congress from both parties are working to shut down any sales in the U.S. We are in talks with a big U.S. athletic wear brand and are hopeful that company will soon join our efforts and give an even bigger lift to the federal legislation.
Remember, commercial shooters have annually massacred two million kangaroos a year in the wild in Australia. A quarter of those victims are joeys, orphaned by the shooters and unable to fend for themselves in the Outback. The commercial shooters don’t even use the newborns’ skins, often just leaving the animals for dead after the night-time shooting sprees.
Once people of conscience learn about these midnight massacres, with adults and orphans littering the landscape, they are outraged. But that outrage must be channeled to drive change. We need an outpouring of public concern to convince the entire Congress that this is the right policy for the United States.
That’s where you come in. The kangaroos need your help to stop the biggest mass slaughter of wildlife in the world.
Please write your U.S. Representative and your two U.S. Senators today and urge them to cosponsor the Kangaroo Protection Act.
And if you can, please donate to our campaign to support this vital work.
Kangaroos do not exist to be turned into shoes.
This new legislation is an incredible opportunity to halt the mass commercial slaughter of entire families and communities of kangaroos. Without sales, there’s no slaughter.
Thank you for your passion for all animals.
For Australia’s wildlife,
 |
Wayne Pacelle
President
Center for a Humane Economy
|
|
