Glory, Glory, David Beckham!

We just got word that David “The Foot” Beckham has decided to hang up his boots! Don’t worry – he’s not retiring from football … but he did decide to replace his kangaroo-leather “Predator” boots with a synthetic version after he heard how the shoes were made.

Four years after signing a multi-million-pound contract with Adidas to wear and promote Adidas Predators, Beckham has given the boots a red card for cruelty after learning of the grotesque methods used by hunters to kill kangaroos. Last year in Australia, more than 3.9 million adult kangaroos were killed for the meat and leather industries. Baby kangaroos, or “joeys”, are considered useless by-products of this barbaric industry, and they’re killed by being stomped on or bludgeoned to death with iron pipes. After Beckham watched a video that showed how joeys are torn from their mothers’ pouches and beaten to death during the annual kangaroo kill, he decided to put his best foot forward by taking a stand against this barbaric trade.

If you know anyone who still wears the kangaroo-skin boots, tell that person all about Beckham’s gripe with the cruel methods used to make them. Hell, if synthetic Predators are good enough for the legendary David Beckham, then they are good enough for you.

Now sign up for the peta2 Street Team, and you’ll earn points for any work you do to fight cruelty to animals – points you can then redeem for all kinds of cool stuff.