An Instagram account showing Palm Island minors attacking animals is being investigated by the Queensland Police Service (QPS).
The account, which was sighted by The Epoch Times, contains multiple videos featuring youths local to the North Queensland island off Townsville, showing distressing treatment of both native and introduced animals.
In one video, a youth is seen dragging a struggling and hissing possum on a string out of the bushes before talking about making “possum stew.”
In another, multiple youths are seen beating a helpless possum, with some children holding it while another boxes and kicks it. The possum appears to be in distress and in bad shape from the beatings.
Possums appear to be routinely abused, with multiple videos added to the account showing the cruelty.
Another possum video shows the children distressingly mimicking pornography scenes with the bodies of multiple dead possums, with the caption “possum porn.”
A fourth video shows children laughing and joking as they play with and taunt a furless baby possum, which is still clinging to its mother’s pouch despite the older possum being dead.
Flicking through videos on the account, another distressing scene shows children chasing and beating a snake as it tries to get away, before twisting it around the handlebars of a scooter.
More shocking footage shows a young boy at first cradling a wild bird, before he throws it, where it lands on the ground in a daze.
Non-native animals are also featured in the videos, with one clip showing a wild boar laying on its side and shrieking as it is bitten into by dogs, and another clip shows a boy smack a dog in the snout.
The account has just 300 followers, with comments on the videos ranging from encouragement for the cruel acts, to disgust.
A QPS spokesperson told The Epoch Times that Palm Island police were investigating incidents posted on social media involving animal cruelty, and urged anyone with information to contact them.
The Epoch Times contacted Queensland Minister for Youth Crime Dan Purdie and the RSPCA, who said they could not comment as the matter as it as before police and involved minors.
Distressing Videos Emerge
The distressing discovery comes after another clip surfaced this month showing a number of young boys using a dead black-headed python as a skipping rope in the Woorabinda community, two hours from the regional Queensland city of Rockhampton.It was not known if the python in that video was already dead before it was filmed, but the video attracted a significant number of views, as well as criticism from the environment department and the RSPCA, and widespread media coverage.
