The California Supreme Court issued a ruling Monday making it illegal for Adidas to sell kangaroo leather shoes in the state of California. These shoes are favored amongst soccer players (including LA Galaxy's David Beckham) but trading kangaroo skin was made illegal in California in 1971 because kangaroos were facing extinction at the time, and it is this state ban that the California courts upheld.
If you know much of anything about Australia or kangaroos, though, you will figure out very quickly that upholding a ban on kangaroo leather does not make much sense. Yes, the kangaroos were in a pretty bad state a few decades ago, but they have rebounded admirably thanks to the increase of cattle farms in the Australian bush (which provides nice grassy areas for the kangaroos to nibble). It is estimated that there are over 50 million kangaroos in Australia today, meaning they are so plentiful that you can order kangaroo in many an Australian restaurant (I've had it, it's similar to beef). In fact, the Australians need to cull several million kangaroos a year lest they destroy the ecosystem or die of starvation.
Noble as the efforts of the California courts are to save animal species, I am a little skeptical if they need to protect animal species that are culled by the millions each year to keep the population in check. Would it not be more useful to divert the funds which will be used to regulate the kangaroo skin ban to protect legitimately endangered species instead? I know most animals are not as cute and cuddly as the kangaroo, but if we are serious about conservation our attentions should focus more on the ones that legitimately need it.
(Thanks to Linda for the kangaroo picture!)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Save the Kangaroos! Oh, wait...
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2 comments:
Yeah that is pretty moronic-- in addition because they have kangaroo farms now too, for meat and leather. People can be so silly...
And P.S. That picture, although super cute, is not actually of kangaroos. Those are wallabies, and exactly the type that hang out by the cabin in Australia :)
Shhhh! In my defense, they were in the same pen as the kangaroos in the Auckland Zoo, so I suppose I got confused. The new one's super-cool though to make up for it. :)
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