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Kangaroo | With excellence, appearance and, purpose in mind, House of Kangaroo is the industry leader in creating premium hand-made kangaroo leather products. House of Kangaroo ensures that all products you receive will be cherished and enjoyed immediately and well into the future.
Skilled craftsmen, trained in the art of working with the unique qualities of kangaroo leather, cut, sew and assemble each one of our premium products ensuring quality, consistency and uniqueness. The finest quality platinum colored accessories, such as zippers, buckles and clasps, are then used to produce each House of Kangaroo business, travel and sport product.
House of Kangaroo custom logo products are offered in black, green or red/brown leather and luxuriant linings are chosen to compliment. House of Kangaroo retail products sold on this website are available in black kangaroo leather only.
Welcome to the House Of Kangaroo. | | The House Of Kangaroo | Why Kangaroo?
Kangaroo leather is one of the most amazing natural materials/leathers available in the world. The superior natural characteristics of kangaroo leather make it stronger, more durable, suppler, and more water resistant than any of its more commercially known leather counterparts such as bovine, sheep or goat.
Most of these remarkable benefits derive from the fact that the kangaroo is a wild animal. All kangaroo leather originates from freely roaming herds that have adapted their hides to survive in one of the most diverse environments on earth - Australia.
With that in mind, no kangaroos are farmed or hunted for commercial purposes. Australia is currently vastly overpopulated with kangaroos, with their numbers steadily increasing. As a result, the Australian Government, with the assistance of world renowned environmental and species control associations, has developed a humane species control program. House of Kangaroo uses only Government approved kangaroo leather. | | The Kangaroo Industry & Market Perceptions . "The kangaroo industry represents the best model of sustainable utilization and environmental wisdom. This is a positive environmental message the Australian government can tell the world...". - Australian Department of Natural Resources & Environment.
------------ | | Benefits Of Kangaroo Leather | Why Kangaroo Leather?
Kangaroo leather has a structure quite different from that of bovine, sheep or any other animal hide. Kangaroo leather has a full fibre structure making it stronger and extra tough. The horizontal angle weave of the fibers create unique fibre bundles which, by the nature of their construction, produce unequaled strength and durability. The absence of various fat cells and glands allows kangaroo leather to be shaved to as little as 0.30mm from its original .90mm while still maintaining its resistance, endurance, and suppleness.
No other leather has the ability to retain its strength, durability and washability at thinness levels below 0.60mm.
Pittard sheepskin, by example, does not have the tough fibre structure of kangaroo. In fact, it has a fairly open structure that contains a high level of fat cells. Once tanned, the result is a dramatic reduction in overall leather strength and endurance making the leather short lived and unsuitable for wet conditions.
Kangaroo leather has been previously used for the production of various gloving and shoe construction where its propensities have made it far superior to its bovine or sheep counterparts. Kangaroo leather is far superior in its strength to thickness ratio when compared to any other leather types.
Kangaroo leather is the finest example of lightness, strength and durability in the animal kingdom. | | | At present, kangaroos are one of the most numerous wild land mammals on earth. There are currently 48 species of kangaroo and, "...it is widely accepted that within this range, kangaroos are now more common than ever before." - Environment Australia (EA)
Of these 48 species, only 5 are commercially harvested. The harvesting process is a very tightly monitored industry and has been under strict and intense supervision for nearly 30 years. National Park Authorities set the yearly quotas and these are based on scientific recommendations independent of industry & commercial influences. Once established, the government issues limited harvesting tags which can only be purchased by government approved harvesters. The harvesters are then only able to harvest kangaroos from selected areas and herds, none of which takes place in national parks, state forests or conservation reserves. No live kangaroos are permitted to be exported for commercial use.
"Australia's kangaroo industry has, through management, research and monitoring, one of the world's best practice and public accountability programs for wildlife regulation and natural resource usage." - Australian Nature Conservation Agency (ANCA).
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Once the harvesting is complete, only kangaroos with the government tags are accepted for processing at the tanneries. This is strictly monitored by government officials and thus acts as a major deterrent to any poaching activities. Upon completion of the tanning process, each tannery must obtain a permit from EA in order to export any finished kangaroo products or raw leather. In addition, it is required that each tannery be able to demonstrate that any finished product or selection of raw leather came from an approved harvest.
Positive Impacts of Kangaroo Harvesting
"Australia is currently supporting a population of kangaroos which if uncontrolled would threaten the economic viability of the pastoral industry & the environmental sustainability of the huge tracks of rangelands." - Environmental Australian Bio-Diversity Group.
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The kangaroo industry plays a very important role in controlling the total grazing pressure in the rangelands. Kangaroo populations in these regions would be approx. 30% higher if the industry did not exist and this would threaten the sustainability of these regions and potentially result in extensive desertification.
An Australian Senate Select Committee on animal welfare and biodiversity hazards, circa 1988, concluded that kangaroos were the number one cause of damage to rangeland crops, a serious cause of land degradation and one of the leading contributors to land desertification. They concluded that, "The kangaroo industry plays and important and positive role in protecting biodiversity in rangelands." - Australian Senate Committee, circa 1988.
Support of the Kangaroo Industry
The kangaroo industry is supported by the endorsement of key professional and credible wildlife management organizations as well as by various government agencies. It is also supported by the vast majority of Australians.
Government Agencies in support of the kangaroo industry include: - The Department of Environment & Heritage
- The National Parks Authorities of Australia
- The Department of Natural Resources & Environment
- The Bureau of Resources & Sciences
Non-Government Agencies in support of the kangaroo industry include: - The Australian Nature Conservation Agency
- The Australian Institute of Biology
- The Wildlife Protection Society of Australia
- CSIRO
- The Environment Australia Bio-Diversity Group
- The Australian Wildlife Management Society (AWMS)
- The Centre for Conservation Biology, University of Queensland
- The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)
- The United Nations International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Commercial Use of Kangaroo
Kangaroo leather is becoming recognized around the world as a premium, quality material with tremendous inherent qualities. Although kangaroo leather has been used for over a century, it is only in the last decade that is has quietly moved to the forefront of the list of desirable leathers.
The kangaroo industry is one of the leading contributors to the social environment in Australia. Generating in excess of $200M per year in revenue, and the industry employs over 4000 people.
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