Sep 14 2022
Article #1 Final Draft: Fatal Kangaroo Attack in Australia for the First Time in 86 Years
A kangaroo attacked a 77-year-old man in Redmond, Australia – the first fatal kangaroo attack in Australia since 1936.
The man that was killed in the kangaroo attack has been identified as a local alpaca breeder named Peter Eades. He was a well-known alpaca breeder, establishing the Agonis Alpaca stud in 1997 and building up a 60-head flock.
After the attack on Sunday, Mr. Eades was found on his property with “severe injuries” by one of his family members. The police and paramedics were called to the scene. They could not immediately get to Mr. Eades because the kangaroo was preventing the paramedics from getting to the him.
When the police found that it was impossible to safely get to Mr. Eades, they fatally shot the kangaroo in order to reach him. Unfortunately it was already too late and Mr. Eades was pronounced dead at the scene. “The kangaroo was posing an ongoing threat to emergency responders,” the statement said.
The Western Australian Police Force released a statement that said that the victim, Mr. Eades, may have been keeping the wild kangaroo as a pet.
In Australia, permits are required to keep wild animals as pets. Permits do allow some citizens in some situations to have kangaroos on their property, but there are also laws that prohibit keeping Australian native fauna as pets. The police, however, did not respond to the questions that were asked about whether the victim had a permit to keep the kangaroo or not.
Tanya Irwin, a senior veterinary nurse and wildlife caregiver at the Native Animal Rescue in Western Australia, said that it’s not common for authorities to approve permits to keep kangaroos as pets because they don’t cope well in human situations in care.
Irwin said that fatal kangaroo attacks are extremely uncommon because it is the first instinct of a kangaroo to flee. Kangaroos will not attack unless they feel threatened or cornered. “Typically, when you come across them in the wild, they’ll let you know that they’re there and keep an eye on you, but they don’t come after you,” she said.
Western Australia is the home of the western gray kangaroo, which can grow to be a little over four feet from head to tail and weigh nearly 120 pounds. The male western gray kangaroo can be aggressive, and when they fight people, they will use the same techniques as they use with each other. They will use their short upper limbs to fight with their opponent, use their muscular tales to take their body weight and then lash out with both their powerful clawed hind legs.
“This looks like it was an adult male and they become quite aggressive, and they don’t do well in captivity,” Irwin said about the kangaroo of the attack, “We don’t know what the situation was; If he was in pain or why he was being kept in captivity and unfortunately … they’re not a cute animal, they’re a wild animal.”
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/world/australia/man-killed-kangaroo.html
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/13/1122653907/kangaroo-fatal-attack-australia
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