Media Release

For Immediate Release: 06 September 2002 Contact: Claudia Tarry, 0117 944 1000 Animal Rights Organisation Calls David Beckham "Insensitive" and "Thick-Skinned" London - In a scathing letter to David Beckham, international campaigns organisation Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) criticises the soccer star for having his baby son’s name embroidered on to a new pair of kangaroo skin football boots. This year alone, 7 million adult kangaroos will be commercially shot for the meat and leather industries - the largest massacre of land animals on the planet. The worthless byproducts of this callous but lucrative business are the million or more baby ‘joeys’ who will be dragged from their dead mothers’ pouches and killed by being stamped on, hit repeatedly, or decapitated Despite attempts by Viva! to persuade David to switch to synthetic, cruelty-free alternatives, he still chooses to be sponsored by Adidas and to wear their Predator Mania kangaroo skin boots. John Kelly, spokesperson for the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, recently admitted sports shoe manufacturers are to blame for mass slaughter of kangaroos, stating: "This [soccer boot] industry is vital to the kangaroo industry. Without it underpinning kangaroo skin prices the entire industry would be at risk". The second largest sporting goods company in the world with 70 per cent of the market for professional football boots, Adidas is the driving force behind the bloodshed. "Only last week David went on record as saying he and Victoria are against killing animals but he seems to be selective in his compassion because he blatantly doesn’t care about kangaroos," says Viva! campaigner Claudia Tarry. "Emblazoning his children’s names on a pair of shoes that may have left both a mother and baby kangaroo dead is insensitive to say the least. There’s no doubt about it, either his skin is as thick as that used to make his football boots or he is making too much money from his endorsement to care. We can only hope that Brooklyn and Romeo grow up with a better set of values." A copy of Viva!’s letter to David Beckham follows. For further information on Viva!’s campaign to stop the kangaroo killing, go to www.savethekangaroo.com or call 0117 944 1000. Mr David Beckham c/o SFX Sports Group Priest House 1624 High Street Knowle Solihull B93 0JU 04 September 2002 Dear David Viva! would like to congratulate you on the birth of your son Romeo. We are delighted that he has Victoria’s chin and Brooklyn’s nose, we only hope that he hasn’t inherited his priorities from his father. Viva! has written to you on a number of occasions about the use of kangaroo leather in the football boots which you promote (the Adidas Predator) and on which your baby son’s name has been embroidered. As you must know by now around a million baby kangaroos a year are killed or left to die when their mothers are shot to provide the leather from which your boots are made. Enclosed is a copy of a new video produced by Viva!, Killing for Kicks, which shows horrific footage of kangaroos being blasted to death and joeys being ripped from the pouch and trampled on. This is the cruelty you are supporting. It is a tragic irony that you should choose to celebrate the birth of your son by inscribing his name on a product which causes the barbaric deaths of so many other mothers and babies. It gives us no pleasure to criticise you publicly at such a happy time but as you have continually refused to respond to our appeals to help end this cruel trade we are left to conclude that you are making too much money from Adidas to turn your back on them. But by continuing to wear the Predator Mania boot, you have the blood of millions of butchered kangaroos on your hands - and feet. Please show us - and your children - that compassion is more important than your bank balance by withdrawing your support for Adidas until they agree to use cruelty-free alternatives to kangaroo leather. We hope to hear from you soon. Yours sincerely Claudia Tarry Campaigner