In her letter to England’s football hero, Juliet Gellatley, Viva’s Director, writes:

“Seven million kangaroos and their babies are to be brutally slaughtered this year in Australia - the largest wildlife massacre in the world! Adult kangaroos are shot, often hit in the throat or neck, and dragged to the trucks struggling and still conscious. Some are still alive when their leg is sliced open and they are hauled up onto the truck by a large hook through the gash. Their throat is then slit and they bleed to death. Young joeys who are still inside their mother’s pouch suffer a more grisly death. They are pulled from the pouch and stamped on, clubbed to death or simply left to die of starvation - worthless by-products of a callous but lucrative industry.”

Video footage documenting this cruelty, as well as Viva!’s report on the killing of kangaroos for meat and skin, have also been sent to Mr Beckham.

The kangaroo industry’s justification for the slaughter is scientifically invalid. For example, it claims that claims that kangaroos are major wheat crop pests, yet a four-year study of grey kangaroos in Western Australia found that 95 per cent of wheat crops are never visited by kangaroos. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), who carried out the research, found that they have virtually no impact on crops and even recommended that farmers encourage natural bush land on their property to help keep kangaroos fed.

Viva!’s expose of the barbaric kangaroo slaughter caused huge public outcry and their high profile campaigns against all the major supermarkets ended the sale of kangaroo meat in Britain. They are now turning their attention to the kangaroo leather industry which shares equal responsibility for this sickening massacre.

Letters have also been sent to David’s team-mate Fabian Barthez who likewise wears Adidas Predator, as well as Michael Owen and Robert Pires who wear Umbro’s XA1, which is also made from kangaroo leather.