It seems that a lot of kangaroos are hit by a lot of vehicles on Australia’s dusty red roads and they’re left to die of their injuries in great pain. It’s a common sight in Australia to see kangaroo carcasses dragged to the verge of the road after being hit by a car or truck where they die slowly if they’ve not been killed instantly.
The argument is that they should be “put down” or euthanised humanely rather than let them die of their injuries. That’s the decent thing to do but it doesn’t happen because there aren’t enough people to do it. The systems aren’t in place.
According to the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions members of the public should report and injured wild animal to the state’s WildCare Helpline. Were not told, but I presume that this refers to the state of Western Australia rather than the federal state.
In any event the people of Australia should report the matter to the authorities who should send out a registered shooter to kill the animal humanely. The helpline is run by volunteers. The whole organisation is inadequate and it doesn’t cope which is why, as mentioned, animals are left to die in pain.
It’s gonna be a tough decision, too, by a road user as to whether you decide the animal is beyond treatment and needs to be euthanised. How can an unqualified member the public decide that? And how can they kill the animal without a gun or the required euthanasia drugs?
The recommendation is that you hit the animal on the head but that might not suffice anyway and it may cause more pain. It looks to me like Australia has an intractable problem. The concern for the kangaroo’s welfare is wonderful but it surprises me because millions of kangaroos are shot at night because they are considered by the authorities to be pests and nuisance animals.
The researchgate.net website tells me that kangaroo-vehicle collisions are frequent. In one research project concerning a 21.2 km paved road in the outback over six months in far western New South Wales, Australia, it was found that a total of 125 kangaroos were killed on the road at a rate of 0.03 deaths per kilometre per day. Imagine how many that adds up to over the year on all of Australia’s road.
That equates to a lot of pain and a big problem which cannot be dealt with successfully by the methods described above. I suspect that nothing will happen to alleviate the pain of these animals after road traffic accidents. Australia has a bad record on wild animal welfare.
My thanks to msn.com
