The kangaroo industry says moves made by two American states to ban the sale of Kangaroo products are based on misinformation and false accusations.
Both the states of Oregon and Connecticut are campaigning to make it illegal to buy and sell any product that contains kangaroo.
Oregon Senator Floyd Prozanski, who introduced the bill, has called the commercial hunting of the marsupial as “unconscionable.”
If passed the bill is likely to effect shoemaker Nike’s pockets who use Kangaroo for soccer cleats.
Director of campaigns for the Center for a Humane Economy Scott Beckstead says that the orginisation believes that is necessary to pass the bill.
“it’s necessary to finally get a bill passed in Oregon … so that Nike and other shoe manufacturers don’t have a welcome market for kangaroo skins in the state of Oregon,” he said.
The director of the Bethesda Maryland-based orginsation also said that the current industry was inhumane.
“We believe that it aligns with the history of humane values among most Oregonians that we should not be allowing the sale of products, and supporting this mass slaughter of kangaroos in Australia,” he said.
Executive officer of the Kangaroo Industry Association Dennis King has called the claims outrageous saying that there was a lot of misinformation about the way the industry treats the marsupial.
The industry is heavily regulated with the government quota for culling and harvesting in 2022 was around four million Kangaroos or 14.5 per cent of the population.
Violaters of the proposed Oregon bill could face up to a year in jail or face $6,250 in fines.
Image Credit: Mark Wagner
