Animal Rights Activists Disrupt Nike Flagship Store in NYC
The News
Approximately 20 animal rights activists with NYCLASS and TheirTurn slipped past the four man security team at the entrance of Nike’s flagship store in New York City to protest the company’s ongoing use of kangaroo skin as a soccer shoe fabric. This was the third protest in New York since the Center for a Humane Economy launched the #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign to pressure Nike into replacing “K leather” with a cruelty-free alternative.
“Shooting wild kangaroos in the head after chasing them down in the dark of night is an act of terror,” said Donny Moss of TheirTurn.net, a NYC-based animal rights group that co-organized the protest. “How do Nike executives sleep at night knowing that they inflict so much pain and suffering on the kangaroos whose skin they steal?”
Once inside Nike’s multi-story store, the activists captured the attention of hundreds of shoppers by displaying posters, chanting and conducting speak outs about the massacre. Fearing for their jobs, the security guards who were hired to prevent the activists from entering the building in the first place pled with them to leave.
The New York Daily News announced the kangaroo skin protest at Nike
“Instead of hiring extra security in an effort to prevent in-store protests, Nike should stop engaging in the behavior that causes them,” said Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of NYCLASS, a NYC-based animal rights group that co-organized the protest. “As long as Nike makes sneakers out of kangaroos, we will keep disrupting business. That’s the least we can do for Nike’s victims.”
Customers inside of Nike’s flagship store in NYC watch as protests demand that Nike discontinue the use of kangaroo skin in its soccer shoes
The massacre of kangaroos in Australia represents the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world. According to the Center for a Humane Economy, 70% of the approximately two million kangaroos killed each year for commercial purposes are used to make soccer shoes for sportswear companies like Nike.
The Guardian selected an image from the kangaroo skin protest at the Nike flagship store in NYC as one of it’s “Photos of the Day”
The Australian National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes governs the industry and sanctions this cruelty. An estimated 40% of kangaroos are shot in the neck or body instead of the head, in violation of the federal code, resulting in wounding and non-instantaneous death. Those who escape die slowly from their gunshot wounds.
Nike slaughters wild kangaroos to make soccer shoes out of their skin
Some of the females who are shot have babies (joeys) in their pouches or by their sides. Code dictates that hunters either decapitate or bludgeon to death the joeys who are in the pouches. The joeys who are not in their mother’s pouch often die slowly from exposure and predation. Each year, an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 joeys die during the nightly kangaroo hunt.
In Australia, hunters shoot wild kangaroos in the head, steal their skin and sell it to Nike, which uses it to make soccer shoes
The Center for a Humane Economy says that Nike rationalizes the mass slaughter of wild kangaroos by engaging in green washing and humane washing. According to Nike, “Suppliers must source animal skins from processors that use sound animal husbandry and humane animal treatment/slaughtering practices.” Activists say that hunting down wild animals who want to live in peace with their families is inherently inhumane.
After disrupting business inside of Nike’s flagship store in NYC, animal rights activists educated customers and pedestrians on Fifth Avenue about Nike’s massacre of kangaroos to make soccer shoes
The Kangaroo Protection Act, federal legislation introduced in 2021, would ban the importation of kangaroo products into the United States. Several retailers, including Nordstrom, Gucci, Prada, and Versace, have already stopped selling kangaroo skin products. The sale of kangaroo parts is banned in California.
New York City is one of many American and Australian cities participating in the global #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign.
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of course this is horrible violence & cruelty but what about the use of cow skin for shoes? there is no difference between cow skin and kangroo skin other than the species of the helpless victims. in fact, in some ways protests like these may make it appear to the general public that killing cows for their skin is somehow acceptable.
Is anyone addressing Australia’s political leaders to seek a ban on kangaroo slaughter. That would end this.
It is so hard to believe something like this takes place and a company like Nike is part of it. We really live in an uncivilized world. I have been to Australia and petted Kangaroos. They are remarkable animals. Very good job in exposing this. I had no idea.