A 19-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly hit and killed up to 20 kangaroos with his ute in what appears to be a mass slaughter on the NSW South Coast. An investigation by detectives led to the arrest of the man on Tuesday afternoon.
He was charged with torture, beat and cause the death of an animal and was granted conditional bail to appear in Bega Local Court on Nov. 26.
Bega Valley Inspector Peter Volf said in a statement on Tuesday evening that police would not tolerate acts of animal cruelty.
“We take incidents such as these very seriously and anyone who engages in activities such as these will face the full brunt of the law,” he said.
Police officers were called to Dress Circle and Headland Drive on Tura Beach, north of Eden, on Sept. 29. They found a scene of carnage, with multiple dead kangaroos lying on the road.
Janine Green, a volunteer with the wildlife rescue group WIRES, said on Monday that she had never seen anything like the carnage in her 20 years with the organization. She said three surviving joeys remained in WIRES' care.
“Residents on the streets were just stunned because they woke up on Sunday morning [Sept. 29] to find dead (kangaroo) bodies strewn all over their lawns,” Green said.
“The kangaroos are part of their community, they’ve lived there forever. They’re all used to the kangaroos hopping up and down the street, the same people slow down for them. For someone to do a mass slaughter like that is just unbelievable.”
