Media Release

Campaigning organisation Viva!’s third international day of protest against sportswear giant Adidas is to take place on Saturday, August 30, and will see demonstrations across the UK as well as in Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Russia and the US. The demonstrations come hard on the heels of the company’s announcement that its mid-year profits are down 10 per cent following a slump in US sales.

Bristol-based Viva! ended the sale of most kangaroo meat in the UK some years ago and began its campaign against the German-based multinational when it discovered that Adidas is one of the world’s biggest buyers of kangaroo skin, which it uses in the manufacture of its Predator professional football boots. Viva! claims that the trade in wildlife is cruel and barbaric and has long-term implications for the survival of the three main kangaroo species targeted. In particular, Viva! accuses Adidas of being party to the beating to death with iron bars of pouched baby kangaroos. After females are shot, their pouches are searched for young, which shooters are instructed to kill by decapitation or by bludgeoning to death.

Six weeks ago, Viva!’s sister group, Viva!USA, issued legal proceedings against Adidas and several retail stores for supplying and selling kangaroo-skin boots in the state of California, which has a law specifically prohibiting such trade. The news was flashed around the world and although the case has still to be heard, it triggered an immediate three per cent slump in Adidas’ share price.

“Despite Australia having just experienced one of the worst droughts in living memory, which has devastated kangaroo populations, its government has sanctioned the death of nearly seven million animals this year”, says Claudia Tarry, Viva! campaigner. “As one of the biggest buyers of skins, it is Adidas which helps to underpin this slaughter - the largest massacre of wildlife ever seen.

“Australia has the worst record in the world for exterminating species, including some kangaroos, yet Adidas continues to fuel the killing by buying skins. It refuses even to discuss the beating to death of hundreds of thousands of baby joeys as it knows it is indefensible. This is Adidas’ Achilles heel and Viva!’s third day of action will aim to tell as many people as possible how their profits are boosted by such abject cruelty. We will be trying to ensure that their financial position deteriorates even further”.

For further information on the kangaroo skin trade, the Adidas day of action or for still pictures and video footage, contact Claudia Tarry or Tony Wardle on 0117 944 1000 or visit www.savethekangaroo.com