Around 20 kangaroos have been killed in an apparent hit and run in Australia, police have said.
Residents in Tura Beach, New South Wales, woke to find the animals’ carcasses on the road on Sunday morning.
Detectives described the killings as caused by “several acts of animal cruelty”.
Officers were called to the residential at around 10.15am, a spokesperson for New South Wales police said.
“Police believe that up to 20 kangaroos may have been run over by a vehicle between 10.30pm and 11.30pm,” the spokesperson said.
Some of the animals were severely injured but not yet dead and had to be euthanised.
“Detectives attached to South Coast Police District are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.”
“Until you see it you can’t grasp the reality of it,” said Janine Green, a volunteer with Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES), who was called in by detectives to care for the wounded animals.
“People were just horrified, and when we took the bodies away, seeing them on the back of the ute (truck) was heartbreaking,”
Ms Green said the attackers used a truck with mounted spotlights and that their actions appeared deliberate.
The spotlights would have startled the animals, she said.
“So the roos would have stood there stunned and then they just ran them down,” she added, according to Channel 7 news.
“I was very sad that someone would have such low self-esteem they would think this would make them a hero,” she said.
“What fun could there be in this carnage, how could it make a person happy?”
