Photocall - Time: 12.30pm Date: Saturday, 31 August
Location: outside JJB Sports, 301-309 Oxford St (opposite John Lewis), London W1
London

On Saturday, 31 August, Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) is co-ordinating an international day of action against Adidas. This year alone, seven million adult kangaroos will be shot to supply the kangaroo leather industry, the largest massacre of land animals on the planet. Adidas is the industry’s biggest customer, making their Predator boot, and others, out of kangaroo skin. Viva! supporters will be outside JJB Sports, at 301-309 Oxford St, London W1, at 12.30pm, urging shoppers to boycott all Adidas products until they stop using kangaroo leather. Tens of thousands of leaflets will be distributed, spelling out the gruesome facts behind every pair of Predator boots. Other demonstrations are planned across the UK and as far afield as Zimbabwe, the US and Australia.

A harrowing new video produced by Viva!, called ‘Killing for Kicks’, shows hunters plundering the outback, brutally killing kangaroos to supply the kangaroo leather industry. Horrifying scenes show how kangaroos are hunted in the dead of night, shot, quite often in the throat, hoisted on to a metal hook on the back of a truck and left hanging upside down to die slow, lingering deaths. Captured on film is the gruesome fate of the million or more baby ‘joeys’, not accounted for in the official quota, who are dragged from their dying mothers’ pouches and killed by being stamped on, hit repeatedly or decapitated. Official figures also exclude millions of orphaned ‘roos who, too young to fend for themselves, hop off terrified into the night to die of starvation or neglect.

Intercut with these scenes are images of David Beckham wearing the Predator boot and promoting Adidas.

“People don’t realise that kangaroos are, quite literally, being killed for kicks,” says Viva! campaigner Claudia Tarry. “Football players who wear kangaroo skin boots have the blood of millions of gentle and unique animals on their hands - and feet.”

An email recently leaked to Viva! from John Kelly, spokesperson for the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, confirms that sports shoe manufacturers are to blame for the bloodshed. In the email, Mr Kelly states: "This [soccer boot] industry is vital to the kangaroo industry. Without it underpinning kangaroo skin prices the entire industry would be at risk”. With 70 per cent of the market for professional football boots, Adidas is the driving force.

“Despite our attempts to persuade Adidas to give cruelty the boot by dropping kangaroo skin, they have so far refused to listen,” says Ms Tarry. “We know that Adidas have already received more than 10,000 emails complaining about their use of kangaroo leather and we hope that when they see Viva!’s horrific new video, they’ll finally pledge to stop funding the kangaroo massacre. There’s nothing we’d like more than to call off the day of action and the global boycott, but unless they undertake to stop using kangaroo leather, we’ll have to hit them where it hurts - in their profits - and use consumer power to bring about change.”

For further information, go to www.savethekangaroo.com. Viva!’s report into the killing, Under Fire, and scenes from Killing for Kicks can all be viewed online. Copies are also available on request.

For further information please phone Claudia Tarry on 01273 777688.