Nike kills kangaroos for football boots
Nike is under fire as the largest buyer of kangaroo leather. In New South Wales alone, over 40'000 kangaroos are killed every month.
Nike has come under criticism for using kangaroo leather to manufacture its football boots.
Animal welfare advocates in Australia believe that the world's largest shoe manufacturer is contributing to driving this species to extinction.
Over the weekend, protesters gathered outside Nike stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, calling on the company to switch to vegan alternatives.
Largest buyer of kangaroo leather
According to a press release from the Animal Justice Party NSW (New South Wales, the state where Sydney is located), Nike is the largest buyer of kangaroo leather.
More than 40’000 kangaroos are killed in NSW alone every month for this reason, according to the party. This figure does not include kangaroos killed by farmers, during recreational hunting, or as roadkill, nor does it count the deaths of joeys.
According to conservation biologist Daniel Ramp, even surviving joeys suffer. Ramp says that joeys that witnessed their mob being hunted subsequently showed no playful behaviour. Members of the Animal Justice Party described the information as “heartbreaking”.
Over the weekend, more than 15 international and national organisations joined the group in participating in the animal welfare campaign launched against Nike.
Industrialised animal cruelty
“Anyone who buys or sells kangaroo leather cannot escape this simple fact: the commercial kangaroo killing industry is industrialised, legalised animal cruelty,” said Darren Brollo, the Animal Justice Party's lead candidate for the Senate, at the protest.
«It is no different from the clubbing of harp seal pups overseas, which Australians are so quick to condemn. The massacre of our native animals is a terrible price to pay for a pair of shoes», he added.
In a separate statement, MP Mark Pearson described the industry as profit-driven, cruel, and environmentally destructive.
«Nike must take responsibility for its contribution to the nightly slaughter of thousands of kangaroos and the regional extinction of kangaroos across Australia», said Pearson.
It has long been known that Australia is home to a variety of kangaroo species found in only a handful of countries. However, a recent parliamentary inquiry has confirmed that the commercial industry is driving kangaroos toward extinction, according to a press release from the Animal Justice Party.
A Liberal MP who attended the inquiry experienced a «crisis of conscience», the statement continued, and brought his concerns to the media.
Pearson continued in his statement: «There are countless plant-based alternatives to animal skin leather, and Nike has the opportunity to take a leading role in developing the world's best vegan football boots — better for the planet and for all animals.»
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
