kangaroos and dogs

There were said to be kangaroos in Darebin Parklands today so I didn't take Penny there. I thought we should stay right away if the story is true.

It would be wonderful to think that this iconic Australian marsupial could live just 14 kilometres from the inner city area and be safe, but as far as I know that isn't the case. Basically, it's a suburban area and people and kangaroos, let alone dogs and kangaroos, don't mix in such an enclosed area.

I think these kangaroos might be part of a mob that is being increasingly forced into urban area by what I consider inappropriate housing development on areas where they used to roam free.

I believe the plan was to rescue the kangaroos from the Park and take them somewhere safe. We can only hope for the best and I'll be interested to hear how it went.

Apparently Canberra also has had the issue of kangaroos being forced by drought into inappropriate areas. I found a report dated 2004 about kangaroos killing pet dogs but I don't know how accurate is is. Strangely, it is from a site in the US. I did find the same reference at Asian Economic News, which seems reputable.

I have spoken to someone who told me of an encounter between her dog and a kangaroo in which, sadly, both animals fell down a bank into a river and drowned.

I'm going away for a couple of days without Penny so I'll leave it to the rest of the family to keep her safely away from the park both for her sake and for the safety of the kangaroos.

Here are a couple of links about kangaroos and dogs. I debated whether to include them in this post and decided to do so because we need to be aware that dogs and Australian wildlife can only interact if the dogs are under complete control.

WARNING - THEY ARE DISTURBING TO ANIMAL LOVERS -DON'T LOOK AT THEM IF YOU WILL BE UPSET BY PICTURES OF DEAD AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE OR OF DESCRIPTIONS OF KANGAROO HUNTING WITH DOGS IN EARLY COLONIAL DAYS:

a page about kangaroo hunting from The Edinburgh Literary Journal
a report of fatal attacks on a baby kangaroo and a koala by dogs