͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌To prevent cruelty to animals, we promote enacting and enforcing good public policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. If you’d like to unsubscribe, click here. [[link removed]]

​​[link removed] [[link removed]]
This lucky joey was rescued from its dead mother’s pouch after the body was discarded by hunters. The trade in kangaroo skins, led in part by Adidas, produces thousands of such nightmarish outcomes each year. (Photo: Wildlife Empire)
Dear John,
Let me tell you the backstory of the trade in kangaroo skins for athletic shoes.
It’s a deeply disturbing account of kangaroo mistreatment from the state of Queensland in Australia. Nobody at Adidas or any of the other companies sourcing kangaroo should ever suggest that their role in the kangaroo trade is either acceptable or benign.
This week, a jogger on her morning run in Queensland heard cries so loud she could make out the call of distress over the music blaring in her ears. She pulled her earbuds out and investigated.
What she found horrified her—and it should repel anyone connected to the kangaroo trade.
She discovered the discarded remains of a wallaroo and two kangaroos. Each had been decapitated and hung by their legs—the signature post-mortem work of the kangaroo killers.
But that’s not the worst of it. The jogger found a 6-month-old joey the size of a small dog in its decapitated mother’s pouch. Killed hours before, rigor mortis of the body made it difficult for the athletic woman to pull the joey out.
But, in a credit to her, the jogger didn’t turn away from the grim and gory sight. She extracted the baby and then called for help with the dependent little one in her arms.
With good fortune, there was a wildlife rescuer nearby. Tennille Bankes of Wildlife Empire retrieved the joey.
Bankes didn’t limit her actions to nursing the baby to good health. She returned to the scene to document and expose what the commercial shooters had done. They left behind their victims for reasons we cannot know and went to the next site, leaving a helpless joey crying for her slain mother.
For years, Adidas has been telling its critics that the hunt is humane and sustainable and sanctioned by the government.
Well, the orphaned joey is the truth behind this commercial massacre. This wasn’t a one-off victim. There are hundreds of thousands of joeys orphaned by the shooters.
Please write your U.S. Representative and your two U.S. Senators today and urge them to cosponsor the Kangaroo Protection Act. [[link removed]]
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS [[link removed]]
The government knows that orphans are collateral damage of the export trade in kangaroo skins. In fact, officials “mandate” killing joeys by blunt force trauma, hitting them in the head with a rock or slamming the animal’s skull against a truck fender. That doesn’t make the orphaning any better—it just adds to the miserable outcomes for the babies.
From beginning to end, it’s ghastly and cruel. And nobody who is part of this trade can tell us it doesn’t happen. It happens every day on the lands that kangaroos rightfully treat as their homeland.
Our Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign wants all of this to end. And we’ve been pressuring Adidas to stop financing this running cruelty.
Recently presented with irrefutable images and arguments, Adidas CEO Björn Gulden acknowledged that the commercial hunting of kangaroos is "terrible" and added, “We will certainly, maybe, switch faster than you think,” sending a mixed message about a possible shift away from using kangaroo leather.
But Adidas has been more than slippery in its defense of the killing of millions of adult kangaroos and hundreds of thousands of joeys, even as its major competitors have cleansed their supply chains of kangaroo skins. Last year, Nike, New Balance, and the Germany-based Puma all announced policies to end their role in the commercial skin trade, with Sokito joining in April.
Even as Gulden said the hunt is cruel, he added that the skins are a byproduct of a government cull. That is demonstrably false. The killing is done precisely because of foreign demand for the skins, and nobody is bigger than the global athletic shoe companies that make the uppers in their soccer cleats from kangaroo skins. And remember, this is the most popular sport in the world and the shoes are essential equipment.
The corporate pledges by athletic wear companies to divorce themselves from the kangaroo skin trade are largely due to our Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign, with its many partners throughout the world. An estimated 1 million adult kangaroos and 300,000 joeys suffer annually due to this industry, mainly for soccer shoes. The good news is, these numbers have decreased thanks to the relentless efforts of the Center for a Humane Economy and the corporate policy decisions to stop sourcing kangaroos.
Jennifer Skiff, director of the campaign, has been actively engaging with Adidas executives on this critical issue. “Mr. Gulden has acknowledged the cruelty of the hunt and indicated that Adidas is listening to our arguments,” Skiff said. “But where is the announcement declaring a divorce from this cruelty?”
In 2012, Adidas pledged to end its role in the kangaroo-skin trade but then reneged. We are now impatiently waiting for action.
As one of the world’s leading sportswear companies, Adidas now stands as an outlier in continuing to support the slaughter of Australia’s marsupials through their purchasing practices. Adidas, end this killing scheme!
So many of our supporters in the U.S. and abroad have enabled this campaign to keep driving forward. We are grateful to you.
Now it’s time to double down so we can finish it and end this awful massacre of kangaroos, who have lived on the Australian continent for the last 15 million years.
Please write your U.S. Representative and your two U.S. Senators today and urge them to cosponsor the Kangaroo Protection Act. [[link removed]]
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS [[link removed]]
With you at our side, we can convince the biggest companies in the world and prevail and protect animals. Would you consider making a contribution to allow us to work to spare kangaroos from these merciless assaults? [[link removed]]
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
Together, we are creating change and look forward to a world void of cruelty to animals.
Sincerely,
Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
[[link removed]] DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] WEBSITE [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
Animal Wellness Action | 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #136 | Washington, DC 20003
If you would like to manage your subscription or contribution history, please log into your self-service portal here. [[link removed]]
If you need to you can unsubscribe here: unsubscribe: [link removed]
You can also click here to donate [[link removed]] .