Most
of the rescue calls we get as wildlifecarers, are as a result
of accidental injury. This call came in from a member of the
public, having found a small Wallaby joey on the side of the
road. The Joey was sitting next to his mother, and it was obvious
from the state of the mother that she had been dead for some
time, possibly up to 5 days. She had a number of bullet wounds,
so this was not a car accident.
The
rescuer carefully picked up the joey, that was very thin, dehydrated
and had a nasty wound to his back leg. After picking up the
joey from the rescuer, I took the joey to the Lismore Veterinary
clinic, where the joey was x-rayed. It became apparent that
not only did he have a broken back leg, but also a bullet from
a 22 rifle lodged in his stomach.Unfortunately the infection
caused by the bullet wound was much too advanced for this joey
to survive, and he was humanely euthanased.
How sad to have to put this animal to sleep, after it had managed
to stay alive for so long.
One
wonders what makes a person aim a gun at a defenseless animal,
not shooting once, but again and again, then not bothering to
check if the animal is dead or alive. Had the shooter bothered
to check, he or she would not have been able to miss this joey
in his mother's pouch, he was 7 months old.
I sincerely hope this person thinks it was worth the suffering
that was caused, by the short time he or she had fun with a
gun.