The Kangaroo Protection Act of 2025

(H.R. 1992)

The Act would prohibit certain activities involving kangaroos and kangaroo products, and for other purposes.

Commercial shooters kill as many as 2 million kangaroos in their native habitats. The kill includes up to a half a million joeys, collateral of their slain mothers. The Kangaroo Protection Act seeks to close the U.S. market that contributes to the world’s largest commercial slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world.

Australia’s Commercial Kangaroo Kill Is Inhumane

  • Australia’s Commercial Code calls for joeys found in the pouch of their mothers to be killed by blunt force trauma to the head. At foot joeys are left to die of starvation or predation.

  • One study found that as many as 40% of kangaroos are “mis-shot” and wounded in the shoots that take place in the dark of night. There is no monitoring of the commercial slaughter.

  • Australia’s animal welfare groups, part of the International Kangaroo Protection Alliance, oppose the commercial kill.

Kangaroos Are Native Wildlife, Uniquely Adapted to Australia’s Arid Landscapes

  • Kangaroos have lived on the Australian continent for 15 million years and are specially adapted to its arid landscapes.

  • Claims about adverse impacts on domesticated animals and the environment are grossly exaggerated. A kangaroo drinks one seventh of the water of a sheep and eats only 1/60 as much as a cow.

Major Athletic Shoe Brands Stop Sourcing Kangaroo Skins

  • Responding to pressure from the Center for a Humane Economy’s “Kangaroos Are Not Shoes” campaign, Adidas, Puma, Nike, Diadora, and New Balance — the top brands in the athletic shoe sector — have stopped sourcing kangaroo skins and are out of the business of making shoes with kangaroo leather.

  • Sokito, a major brand based in the United Kingdom, also stopped making shoes with kangaroo leather. Sokito founder, Jake Hardy said: “It’s clear to us that this industry can no longer consider itself ethical. And definitely not a byproduct. Kangaroos are being killed for money, more than they are being killed for population control, and we want no part of that.”

Why Should the U.S. Ban Kangaroo Imports?

The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation does not allow mass killing of wildlife in their native habitats for sale of their parts in global commerce. The U.S. should not contribute to this commercial slaughter through domestic sales of kangaroo parts.

The kangaroo kill is 10 times larger than the notorious Canadian seal hunt. The U.S. bans the import of seal pelts for reasons related to cruelty to animals. We don’t allow trade in harpooned whales killed by Norwegian vessels or slain dolphins rounded up in Japan’s drive fisheries. The same standards should apply to the slaughter of kangaroos in their native habitats.

Australia can manage kangaroos as it wishes, but the United States should not inadvertently finance kangaroo slaughter through trade.