Beckham's kangaroo skin boots upset campaigners

David Beckham should throw out his soccer boots, a British animal welfare group says.

The England captain's Adidas Predators are made of the skin of kangaroos which are cruelly slaughtered, say Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals, known as Viva!

"What's happening is the largest wildlife massacre in the world," said Juliet Gellatley from Viva!

"Some kangaroos are still alive when their legs are sliced open," she said, "and every time, they kill a mother, the baby in the pouch has to die as well."

Footballers such as Beckham and Michael Owen were wearing kangaroo skin boots probably without being aware of the slaughtering, she said. That is why she and her supporters were campaigning at clubs, urging players to boycott the boots.

Beckham currently has other issues on his mind. The midfielder broke a bone in his foot on Wednesday and could miss the World Cup finals in May and June as well as Manchester United's appearance in the European Cup semifinals later this month.

Manchester United would not comment on the Viva! campaign. But German sportswear company Adidas said kangaroo skin was among the best materials for soccer boots.

"Kangaroo leather has the advantage that it is very thin and soft but still has a very high tensile and tear strength," a spokeswoman for Adidas said, adding that the firm was concerned that the harvest of kangaroos was done under humane conditions.

Its leather supplier had to abide by all government rules to receive an export permit, she added.

GOLF BAGS

The commercial killing of kangaroos is legal in several Australian states. Every year, the country exports some three million skins, worth more than 12 million pounds ($17 million) to Europe and the United States, Viva! says.

The skins are made into products such as gloves, golf bags and boots and are among the few remaining kangaroo products in British shops after more than 1,500 supermarkets pulled kangaroo meat from their shelves following a Viva! campaign, the group says.

Australia has set a killing quota of some seven million kangaroos for this year. Environment Australia estimates that in 2001, about 57 million red, Eastern and Western grey kangaroos lived in the harvest areas.

The species made up more than 90 percent of the commercial harvest and were not endangered, it said on its website.

Kangaroo hunters have to follow a special code of conduct, which states that sudden and painless death is the only acceptable means of killing.

But Noah's Ark, an Australian wildlife coalition, says that the code of practice is a voluntary one without any clout in law and says it has done nothing to lessen concern about cruelty to kangaroos.

Ninety percent of the hunters were not professionals but part-time amateurs, the group said, adding that illegal trade supplied a substantial number of animals for meat and skin.

EXTINCT SPECIES

The British Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said it did not oppose the use of kangaroo skin, in the same way leather from cattle was used, if the animals were legally and humanely killed and their cull was necessary.

But Gellatley said kangaroo leather meant an unnecessary death for millions of kangaroos and joeys every year.

"It is claimed that kangaroos are a major wheat crop pest. But that is not true at all," she said, pointing to a study of grey kangaroos in Western Australia which found that 95 percent of wheat crops were never visited by kangaroos.

"Hunters target the largest and fittest animals. This is the opposite of wildlife conservation. Commercial trade determines the terms of the kangaroo killings," she added.

Viva! said that six species of kangaroos were already extinct, with four more species extinct on the Australian mainland and 17 species listed as endangered or vulnerable.

The group has launched a series of demonstrations outside English premiership and first division soccer clubs, showing pictures of kangaroo killings and distributing leaflets.

The campaigners have also written to Beckham and Owen directly but the players had not replied so far, Gellatley said.

"We want them to say: 'No way I'm going to wear the boots. Wildlife is more important than this,'" she said.