Adidas boycotts sheep mulesing

Tag : kangaroo leather

ADIDAS is the latest clothing business to refuse to buy wool fromAustralian sheep that have been mulesed.
It will not even use wool from sheep that have been subjected toclips the Australian wool industry has developed as an alternativeto traditional mulesing.
The company declared its position this week in a letter to thePeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in the United States,which has been successfully pressuring clothing labels to boycottAustralian wool since 2004.
Last month, the federal Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, wroteto Adidas, saying Australia was developing alternatives tomulesing, but millions of sheep would die agonising deaths if itwas stopped immediately.
PETA insists there are already viable alternatives such as sheepbred with naturally bare breech areas that do not need to haveflesh cut away to protect them from burrowing blowfly maggots.
"Three cheers for Adidas for refusing to support unnecessary andcruel lamb mutilations down under," PETA declared on its websiteyesterday.
Adidas's decision is controversial because the German company hasrefused to buckle to animal rights campaigners over its use ofkangaroo leather in football boots.
Simon Millar, the marketing director of Adidas Australia, said themulesing boycott was part of the company's policy to ensure ethicalproduction.
John Kelly, the executive officer of the Kangaroo IndustryAssociation, said Adidas was not planning to abandon kangarooleather because "they know [the industry is] sustainable andhumane".
This year the kangaroo industry is allowed to shoot 3.65 millionanimals.
Maryland Wilson, the president of the Australian WildlifeProtection Council, said it was outrageous the Federal Governmentopposed whaling but sanctioned the "cruel" kangaroo kill thatsupplies Adidas. "Unless Australia stops killing kangaroos, we aregoing to see a sudden drop of population to the point of noreturn," she said.