PERTH, Australia — A person who could have been retaining a wild kangaroo as a pet was killed by the animal in southwest Australia, police stated Tuesday. It was reportedly the primary deadly assault by a kangaroo in Australia since 1936.
A relative discovered the 77-year-old man with “severe accidents” on his property Sunday in semirural Redmond, 250 miles southeast of the Western Australia state capital Perth.
It was believed he had been attacked earlier within the day by the kangaroo, which police shot lifeless as a result of it was stopping paramedics from reaching the injured man, police stated.
“The kangaroo was posing an ongoing menace to emergency responders,” the assertion stated.
The person died on the scene. Police are making ready a report for a coroner who will document an official trigger to demise.
Police imagine the sufferer had been retaining the wild kangaroo as a pet.
There are authorized restrictions on retaining Australian native fauna as pets, however the police media workplace stated Tuesday they’d no info to make public concerning whether or not the sufferer had a allow.
Tanya Irwin, who cares for macropods on the Native Animal Rescue service in Perth, stated authorities not often challenge permits to maintain kangaroos in Western Australia.
“This seems to be prefer it was an grownup male and so they change into fairly aggressive and so they don’t do nicely in captivity,” Irwin stated.
“We don’t know what the scenario was; If he was in ache or why he was being stored in captivity and sadly … they’re not a cute animal, they’re a wild animal,” Irwin added.
Irwin stated her rescue heart at all times rehabilitates native animals with the goal of returning them to the wild, notably kangaroos.
“You do want a particular allow to have the ability to try this. I don’t imagine they actually give them out fairly often until you’re a wildlife heart with educated individuals who know what they’re doing,” she stated.
Western grey kangaroos are widespread in Australia’s southwest. They’ll weigh as much as 119 kilos and stand 4 ft 3 inches tall.
The males could be aggressive and struggle individuals with the identical methods as they use with one another. They use their brief higher limbs to grapple with their opponent, use their muscular tails to take their physique weight, then lash out with each their highly effective clawed hind legs.
In 1936, William Cruickshank, 38, died in a hospital in Hillston in New South Wales state on the Australian east coast months after he’d been attacked by a kangaroo.
Cruickshank suffered intensive head accidents together with a damaged jaw as he tried to rescue his two canines from a big kangaroo, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported on the time.
