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| Photo Credit: AP. |
PERTH, Australia (AP) — A man who may have been keeping a wild kangaroo as a pet was killed by the animal in southwest Australia, police said Tuesday. It was reportedly the first fatal attack by a kangaroo in Australia since 1936.
A relative
found the 77-year-old man with “serious injuries” on his property Sunday in
semirural Redmond, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of the Western
Australia state capital Perth.
It was believed
he had been attacked earlier in the day by the kangaroo, which police shot dead
because it was preventing paramedics from reaching the injured man, police
said.
“The
kangaroo was posing an ongoing threat to emergency responders,” the statement
said.
The man died
at the scene. Police are preparing a report for a coroner who will record an
official cause to death.
Police
believe the victim had been keeping the wild kangaroo as a pet.
There are
legal restrictions on keeping Australian native fauna as pets, but the police
media office said Tuesday they had no information to make public regarding whether
the victim had a permit.
Tanya Irwin,
who cares for macropods at the Native Animal Rescue service in Perth, said
authorities rarely issue permits to keep kangaroos in Western Australia.
“This looks like it was an adult male and they
become quite aggressive and they don’t do well in captivity,” Irwin said.
“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,” Irwin added.
Irwin said
her rescue center always rehabilitates native animals with the aim of returning
them to the wild, particularly kangaroos.
“You do need
a special permit to be able to do that. I don’t believe they really give them
out very often unless you’re a wildlife center with trained people who know
what they’re doing,” she said.
Western gray
kangaroos are common in Australia’s southwest. They can weigh up to 54
kilograms (119 pounds) and stand 1.3 meters (4 feet 3 inches) tall.
The males
can be aggressive and fight people with the same techniques as they use with
each other. They use their short upper limbs to grapple with their opponent,
use their muscular tails to take their body weight, then lash out with both their
powerful 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 extensive head injuries including a broken jaw as he attempted to
rescue his two dogs from a large kangaroo, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper
reported at the time.