Hello fellow campaigner,
BOYCOTT ADIDAS - SATURDAY, 31 AUGUST 2002
I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported Viva!'s
campaign to end the brutal massacre of kangaroos for their meat and
skin. International pressure is taking its toll on the kangaroo industry
and they are desperately trying to find new markets for their products
as more and more companies refuse to stock them.
Sales of kangaroo meat have been virtually wiped out in Britain and we
are now tackling the much more lucrative kangaroo skin trade. It is this
industry, which supplies leather for football boots, handbags and base-
ball mitts, which is fuelling the slaughter of millions of kangaroos and
their babies every year.
We are targeting companies using kangaroo skin one at a time, just
as we did with supermarkets stocking kangaroo meat, until we have
wiped out this sickening trade. Our first target is Adidas and their
`Predator' boot, worn and promoted by England's team captain David
Beckham. Adidas is far and away the leader in `premier football boots',
with 70 per cent of the market worldwide.
We wrote to Adidas outlining our concerns about their use of kangaroo
skin and received a nauseating standard letter claiming to care about
`humane harvesting' and regurgitating the Kangaroo Industry Association's
propaganda about population control. We have written back to Adidas
addressing the points made in their letter and requested a meeting with
them, but so far they have not replied. It's time for us to step up the
campaign and make them take notice!
We're going to take the campaign to the high street and urge shoppers
not to buy Adidas products until they cease their part in the largest
wildlife massacre in the world. We'll be producing leaflets, posters,
petitions and stickers all exposing Adidas as a driving force behind
an industry which bludgeons millions of young joeys to death every year.
Day of Action
In the UK and USA, we will be holding an Adidas Day of Action on
Saturday, 31st August. Activists will hold protests outside high
street shops which stock Adidas football boots and urge shoppers
to boycott all Adidas products as long as they use kangaroo skin.
We would love to make this an international day of action as Adidas
are a global company and kangaroo - skin boots are sold around the
world.
If your organisation can not commit to taking part in this day of action,
please still take this campaign on and help put international pressure
on Adidas.
It is vital to the survival of the kangaroo that we stop the trade in their
skins, but especially for the manufacture of football boots. According to
Australia's leading tanners of kangaroo leather, Parker Tanning,
manufacturers prefer to use the largest skins to make athletic footwear.
These skins come from the big red males who take 10 years to reach
alpha status and are being continually massacred so few survive to
pass on their superior genes to the next generation.
This means that smaller, weaker and younger males are left to breed
with the females, producing offspring who are less likely to survive a
major drought or other natural disasters. We must reverse this trend
before a major disaster strikes and Australia's kangaroos are wiped out!
It is frightening that leather suppliers are complaining that there are few
large red males left in Australia. Skins are getting smaller and smaller
as they now shoot juveniles.
Please join the fight to save these magnificent animals. We can supply
you with sample materials for you to translate, videos, photos and our
scientific report on the killing of kangaroos for meat and skin. All of
these materials can also be downloaded from our website:
www.savethekangaroo.com
Thanks for your continued help and support.
Yours for the animals
Juliet Gellatley, Director, Viva!

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