3rd International Day of Action Against Adidas
 
On Saturday 30 August we took our Adidas campaign to the streets for the 3rd time in its 18 month history with another high profile Day of Action.
 
Riding high on the success of the two previous events our dedicated supporters organised more than 40 local events across the UK, distributing over 50,000 leaflets between them and collecting thousands more signatures on petitions.
 
At the London protest, which took place outside Lillywhites sports shop, Piccadilly Circus, we were lucky to be joined by Teresa Buss-Carden of the Australia-based World League for the Protection of Animals (WLPA). Teresa spoke from the heart to shoppers stopping to take a leaflet or sign the petition, explaining the terrible plight the kangaroos are in. Severe drought has ravaged the country and kangaroo numbers have been decimated by 70 per cent, but still the commercial kangaroo industry rages on shooting millions more. Teresa has seen first hand the suffering kangaroos are enduring – farmers shooting them and leaving them to rot in their fields, orphaned joeys fighting for life without their mothers to feed and protect them and kangaroos reduced to skin and bones with not a drop of water to drink nor blade of grass to eat. After years of misinformation and a chain of excuses propagated to justify the commercial kill, the kangaroo has developed a very negative image in its homeland. This wonderful, unique wild animal is often described as ‘vermin’ and ‘a pest’ and the poor creatures receive very little sympathy from the Australian public. WLPA, the Australian Wildlife Protection Council and the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia are working hard to promote kangaroos and protect them from cruelty but it is vital that an international effort is made to help.

The Adidas campaign is already supported by several international animal welfare groups and is widely publicised on foreign web sites and email lists, one of the most efficient ways of spreading the word to millions of people about the cruelty Adidas is funding. Day of Action protests have previously taken place in Australia, America,France, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, Russia and Zimbabwe and shortly before the 3rd event we were contacted by groups inArgentina,Spainand theNetherlandsalso wanting to take part. Adidas is a multinational organization with regional divisions around the world so we need to fight them on a global level and encourage consumers everywhere to boycott their products. In order to do this, we have produced a new Adidas leaflet available in six languages, suitable for local animal rights/welfare groups to print out and photocopy for use at their own demos and protests. The leaflet, which gives basic information about the kangaroo campaign and details of how to complain to Adidas in the different countries, is available in French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Portuguese and Italian. There is no doubt about it, this is a truly international campaign supported by campaigners and consumers around the world!

Previous Demos:

1st International Day of Action Against Adidas, Saturday 31 August, 2002

On August 31 last year, Viva! staged the 1st International Day of Action against Adidas - the world’s number one users of kangaroo skin. Dedicated Viva! supporters across the UK, US, Australia and Europe organised peaceful actions outside Adidas stockists, urging the public to boycott Adidas until they stop using kangaroo skin. Some 50 events took place in the UK alone, ranging from groups of people outside sports shops to a single person leafleting on their own.
Adidas received tens of thousands of complaints about their involvement in the kangaroo slaughter yet continue to ignore the cruelty by using the skins of butchered kangaroos to make boots such as the Predator. I recently spoke to Adidas’s Head of Environmental Affairs and reminded him of the many letters, phone calls and emails of support our campaign receives every day. Although the company’s image is being seriously tarnished, we clearly need to do more to win this campaign.
We have reminded Adidas of the millions of baby joeys who are shot, bludgeoned and stamped to death; the juvenile joeys who are left to die from starvation, neglect and predation; the injured kangaroos who disappear into the night to die of their wounds. But they simply don’t care! Nor do they care that some species of kangaroo may become extinct. There is not even any respite for these beautiful wild animals during Australia’s worst drought in 100 years. Millions are dying slow, painful deaths from thirst and starvation but the commercial slaughter continues unabated simply to make football boots! It is hard to believe this callous approach to wildlife still exists in the 21st Century.

2nd International Day of Action Against Adidas, Saturday 8 February, 2003

Six months after the first International Day of Action against Adidas the sporting goods manufacturer is still using kangaroo skin to make, amongst others, its Predator boot. In the 9 months since the World Cup last year, Adidas have sold half a million pairs of Predator boots... helping to make it the kangaroo skin industry's biggest customer. We have been working on this campaign relentlessly behind the scenes and to help take our message to the streets we planned some exciting international events and a second Day of Action on February 8 2003.

Adidas's global headquarters is in Herzogenaurach, Germany. To our amazement we found out that nobody in Germany knew anything about their involvement in the kangaroo killing. So a couple of days before the Day of Action I travelled to Herzogenaurach to protest right on their doorstep. When they found out I was going, the Director of Social and Environmental Affairs and Corporate PR Director for Adidas agreed to a meeting. This was the first time in our year-long campaign that Adidas had agreed to meet anyone from Viva!

I established links with representatives from two German groups who agreed to take on the Adidas campaign, Animal Peace - the biggest animal rights group in Germany - and Menschen Fur Tierrechte (MFT), a smaller but very hard-working and incredibly well-organised group. Members of MFT in particular dove straight in by organising the demo outside the HQ and a march through the town. Their help and support was invaluable.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 5 I travelled to Herzogenaurach. The weather was working against us - it was freezing cold, and snowing! - but that hadn't seemed to put anyone off and I was over the moon to find around 50 people, some travelling from 4 hours away. I gave out 'blood-splattered' Adidas clothes for everyone to put on and couldn't believe my eyes when people started to unfurl 10 feet long banners and enormous posters saying 'Vorsicht Adidas!' ('Boycott Adidas'). Bearing in mind they knew nothing about the campaign until just a few weeks before, the enthusiasm of the German groups was amazing. Even though we were protesting in the midst of a freezing cold and very blustery snow-storm the wonderful display of posters and banners were impossible to miss!

Bavarian regional television filmed the demo and two local newspapers also came along. Adidas were obviously concered as they sent out a whole team of PR representatives to deal with the media.

I stayed at the demo for about an hour and then went to meet Frank Henke and Anne Putz from Adidas.

Over the course of our meeting, the Adidas representatives displayed a staggering lack of understanding of the commercial kangaroo industry, and deliberately refused to acknowledge the responsibility they bear for the cruelty that is taking place. When pushed to comment on the killing of joeys they commented it was 'unacceptable' but that it was a matter for the Australian government to deal with, not them.

Mr Henke stated that whilst the industry was legal, they would continue to buy the skins. This cold-blooded policy means millions more adult kangaroos and their babies will be slaughtered.

The meeting came to a polite, but very divided, close. Most importantly though, I knew they would go away realising our campaign is going to get bigger and stronger, and that their image is slowly but surely being damaged.

On the same day, Viva! USA campaigner Lauren Ornelas, Viva! UK campaigner Alistair and representatives from Australian wildlife protection organisations staged demos outside Adidas's other head-quarters in Portland (USA), Melbourne (Australia) and in Stockport. Alistair, accompanied by 'the Grim Reaper' and an army of Viva! supporters dressed in more 'bloody' Adidas clothes, peacefully protested outside Adidas UK. In the US, the presence of Lauren and her fellow activists outside Adidas's US HQ led to the street being closed off by the police!

One of the most impressive stunts was pulled off by Maryland Wilson, President of the Australian Wildlife Protection Council and her team of supporters, who dragged a dead kangaroo (he had been hit by a car) outside Adidas Australia's offices in Victoria. To the horror of the employees inside the protesters entered the building, unfurling a banner declaring 'Our Wildlife Is Not For Sale' Many kangaroos are being hit and killed by cars as they gather at the road-sides, desperate to lap at the few drops of dew that collect there - at least the death of this kangaroo helped focus attention on the plight of the all those others being commercially hunted. In Sydney and Melbourne protesters staged 'naked' Adidas protests during which they symbolically discarded their Adidas sports gear and stripped down to flesh-coloured body-stockings!

On Saturday February 8 the 2nd Day of Action against Adidas took place. Activists around the world took part, staging peaceful protests outside sports shops stocking Adidas products. 50 actions took place in the UK alone. Two environmental groups in Russia participated, organising demos in four separate towns between them, and activists in Brazil, Viva! supporters held a stall on the beach and collected over 1000 signatures! Tens of thousands of leaflets were distributed - all helping to raise awareness of Adidas's involvement in kangaroo killing to new levels.

Many new faces joined in these demos which was fantastic testament to the fact that this campaign really does touch people and make them want to get out and 'do something'. We know from the reactions of shoppers and passers-by who pledged not to buy any Adidas products whatsoever that the public is truly horrified by kangaroo slaughter.