Oscar Parry
A wildlife rescuer urges drivers to report injured or killed animals after leaving a scene of nine dead kangaroos within one section of road in Bulla.
Wildlife Rescuers volunteer Michael Sorrentino recently arrived at the road, not far from the Melbourne Airport Viewpoint, after receiving a call about a kangaroo with two injured legs that needed to be euthanased.
After arriving, he discovered an unmarked dead kangaroo across the road and another marked one nearby.
Walking towards the third dead kangaroo, he discovered a fourth kangaroo injured and still alive in a patch of mud.
“It’s pretty distressing. You find one in that state and you feel for them … then you find another and start to feel a bit angry,” Mr Sorrentino said.
Mr Sorrentino said he entered a “rescue mindset” and tried to rescue the injured animal, then deciding it too needed to be euthanased.
“You sort of just deal with it and deal with your emotions after the fact. Later on, you can’t help but feel depressed about the way they were treated and left there,” he said.
All of these kangaroos were within 50 metres of each other, before he walked about 100 metres down the road to discover five more – three attended to previously by rescuers and two unreported.
Mr Sorrentino said it was “frustrating” to find kangaroos that had been hit and not marked or reported to rescuers.
“Sometimes you wonder if people think you’ll judge them .. but we’re nice people, we’re not about that. We just want to help the animals,” he said.
On a Facebook post about the scene, residents echoed similar sentiments.
“Just so incredibly wrong. I keep telling people … these things happen, but it’s about what you do next that shows the sort of human you are,” one commenter wrote.
Mr Sorrentino urged drivers to not feel guilty when unintentionally injuring an animal, and to call a rescuer if the animal requires care.
“All it takes is that one call. If it happens at night … give us the nearest location through a Google Maps pin drop. It makes it easier for us to find the animal when we do get on scene,” he said.
Mr Sorrentino reported that since the night, he had returned to the same section of road, discovering more unmarked and deceased kangaroos.
