Animal welfare volunteers have been left devastated after 14 kangaroos were found beaten to death on the state's South Coast, but a sole surviving joey is on the mend.
Two teenaged boys have been charged after allegedly deliberately killing the kangaroos which were found across two separate locations near Batemans Bay last weekend.
The death of the animals has shocked local WIRES volunteers, who were called to help the South Coast Police District locate the animals on Saturday morning.
"Just devastation. To think of the horror they would have gone through," said Janelle Renes, who is the chair of the Mid South Coast Branch of WIRES, which includes Batemans Bay.
Police say they were called around 7:00am on Saturday, October 9, to Long Beach near Batemans Bay, after receiving reports that several kangaroos had been killed.
Officers, along with WIRES volunteers, found five adult kangaroos and one joey dead on Blairs Road and Sandy Place, and a further seven kangaroos and one joey dead in the nearby Maloney's Beach area.
One surviving, but injured, female joey found at the Maloney's Beach site was taken into the care of WIRES volunteers and is now on the road to recovery.
"Surprisingly, she's doing incredibly well," Ms Renes said.
"It took about two hours to warm her up and to see any real signs that she was going to survive."
A joey named Hope
WIRES volunteers have named the joey Hope, and she has since been paired up with another young joey named Hopper, who is also in care.
Ms Renes says the name is symbolic.
"We try to educate people in changing their points of view … and teaching people that we have to look after our animals," she said.
"It's a privilege to have them [the kangaroos] here."
Following investigations and a public appeal for information, officers arrested two 17-year-old boys at the Batemans Bay Police Station on Monday evening.
The pair were charged with recklessly beating and killing an animal, and are due to appear at a children's court in November.
