Photo credit: Hopping Pictures

Following LAV’s campaign exposing Italy’s leading role in kangaroo leather imports, sportswear brand Diadora has been the first to pledge kangaroo-free production from next year.

This decision came only five months after LAV’s first contact with brand representatives, and has a potential to save millions of kangaroos from brutal killings. Simone Pavesi, LAV’s Animal Free Fashion initiative advocate, expressed satisfaction by stating that the ‘only thing’ it took to make this historical decision is to show cruelties that are being inflicted on kangaroos in Australia.

Every year more than two million kangaroos are killed, with an astonishing number of collateral victims – joeys dependent on their mothers, and wounded animals – left to die slow, agonizing deaths. For years now, Italy has been the leading importer of kangaroo skins, primarily used in the sportswear industry to manufacture soccer shoes and motorcycling suits., but they are also used by renowned fashion brands to produce high-end footwear and accessories.

LAV urges all the Italian companies contributing to the largest carnage of wildlife in the world to follow the example set by Diadora.

Read LAV’s press release (in English)