Ill-timed bill comes just months after the biggest athletic shoe brands, including Nike, New Balance, and Adidas, halt their sourcing of kangaroo skins for soccer shoes
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee dismissed a desperate, ill-considered legislative gambit to repeal California’s long-standing, court-tested prohibition on the import, sale, and possession of kangaroo parts. The 1971 law—restricting trade in kangaroo parts and a range of other species subjected to commercial exploitation—remains intact and the California market completely closed to skins, meat, and other kangaroo parts moved in trade.
SB 1212, introduced by state Sen. Brian Jones, R-40, San Diego County, would have dismantled a law that has anchored California’s role as a national leader in wildlife protection for more than five decades. The bill’s defeat preserves a prohibition that bans any commerce in kangaroo products within the state, a standard the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action have long fought to maintain and expand.
“Some lawmakers have particularly bad timing and that’s the case with Senator Jones’ gambit to gut California’s limits on the trade in kangaroo parts,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “This plan was dead on arrival, and its primary effect is to spur the Center for a Humane Economy to work to replicate that law in other states and to push for the federal Kangaroo Protection Act. Commercial trade in wildlife parts is at odds with U.S. values.”
“Kangaroos are iconic, sentient animals, not commodities. Today’s vote ensures California will not be complicit in an industry built on their suffering,” said Judie Mancuso, founder of Social Compassion in Legislation, which has a major presence on a wide range of animal welfare issues in Sacramento.
The commercial kangaroo slaughter industry in Australia has long sought access to U.S. markets. The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action have led the charge against this trade, achieving landmark corporate commitments from nine of the world’s largest athletic shoe brands to end or phase out sourcing kangaroo skins for soccer shoes. That campaign, launched in 2020, reversed the procurement strategies of companies that collectively supply footwear to an estimated 1 billion soccer players throughout the world.
The commercial kangaroo shoot violates the most basic animal welfare standards. Australian law mandates a single shot to the head, but night-shoot conditions make compliance impossible—up to 40 percent of animals are mis-shot and escape to die slowly from their injuries. Dependent joeys are killed as collateral casualties and discarded; those that flee when their mothers are shot die from starvation and predation. The industry operates without meaningful oversight, and its cruelty is not in dispute.
“Adidas, Nike, Puma, ASICS, Diadora, New Balance, and Sokito have stopped producing shoes made with kangaroo skins,” said Jennifer Skiff, director of international programs at the Center for a Humane Economy. Umbro is stopping in a few months, and Mizuno is in the process of phasing out. When the biggest names in athletic footwear walk away from a product, they are making a statement about the industry behind it. California’s lawmakers are on board. Congress should get in on the act.”
The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action are advancing the federal Kangaroo Protection Act, H.R. 1992/S. 2162, bipartisan legislation that would make California’s standard the law of the land by prohibiting the commercial sale of kangaroo products nationwide. The bill is led by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., in the House, and Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Cory Booker, D-NJ., in the Senate.
Just a few years ago, approximately 1.7 million kangaroos were killed annually for commercial purposes, along with hundreds of thousands of dependent joeys. That number has dropped significantly as a result of corporate policy changes and public pressure. The defeat of SB 1212 ensures California will not reverse that progress.