A short film created by Hollywood producer Gavin Palone and director Derek Ambrosi, exposes the yearly massacre of two million kangaroos for football boots. The film comes as two US congressmen introduce a new kangaroo protection bill, the Kangaroo Protection Act, to ban the sale of kangaroo body parts in the US. If passed, the Kangaroo Protection Act will make it illegal to exploit kangaroos in the USA.
“Nike officials are not pulling the trigger, but they might as well be,”
says Wayne Pacelle, President of the Center for a Humane Economy. “Using spotlights and night-vision rifle scopes, hired guns kill entire kangaroo families in the dead of night so they can sell the skins to the world’s best-known athletic shoe company.”
Running at 60-seconds long, the short film reveals Nike‘s supply chain and gives a glimpse into the market for kangaroo skin soccer shoes, which is at the core of the largest terrestrial wildlife slaughter on the planet. Produced in collaboration with the Centre for a Humane Economy, the film forms part of a global campaign to persuade Nike to end its role in the killing of two million wild kangaroos each year.
The film adds to mounting pressure from consumers to end the use of kangaroo skin, with many clothing manufacturers, such as Versace, Prada and Gucci, committing to go K-leather free. “I wanted to expose the bloody truth that is being hidden from well-intentioned consumers who may have no idea how their ‘K-leather’ shoes are being made,” said Polone. “Nike can no longer hide its responsibility for this atrocity.”
Juliet Gellatley, Founder and Director of Viva!, which has been campaigning about kangaroo cruelty and slaughter for decades, states: “Viva! has been campaigning against the sale of kangaroo meat since the 1990s. We have achieved numerous successes in the removal of kangaroo products from our supermarket shelves and are to announce that all UK supermarkets are now kangaroo meat free.
In 2003, Viva!USA filed a lawsuit against Adidas America Inc and three sports shops for illegally selling kangaroo-skin Predator boots in California – a case which is still making waves now. This is an issue very close to my heart and I strongly support the Center for a Humane Economy’s campaign against Nike.”
