Bizarre scene on the side of American road highlights country's 'real problem'
South Carolina residents couldn't believe their eyes when a kangaroo started bouncing down the road.
It was far from your average Monday when car dealership owner Ally Medlin got called out of her office by a salesman who had made a strange discovery. A kangaroo was casually standing outside.
The business owner, who lives in Hardeeville, South Carolina, could barely believe her eyes when she saw the docile and friendly creature greeting customers. It wasn't long before a crowd gathered to catch the rare sight and take a selfie.
"It was like nothing we have ever seen," she told Yahoo News Australia.
"I was in my office in the back and one of my salesmen, Carlos, comes in and says; 'You need to come see this! There’s a kangaroo!'
"Of course, this is a strange sight for us here in the US. There are no zoos or anything like that around us so we had no idea why it was around."
Baffled by the "strange encounter", local law enforcement was called to try and solve the mystery of where the kangaroo came from, and Medlin explained that they later learned it was an animal that is owned as a pet by a local family who are said to also have tigers.
"It’s my understanding that the landscaper accidentally left the gate open where the kangaroo was," she said.
Looking it up, Medlin discovered that a kangaroo can be legally owned without a permit in her home state of South Carolina. The state is one of just a handful in the US that allow kangaroos as pets, including West Virginia and Wisconsin.
South Carolina has a number of quirky rules when it comes to keeping wildlife, for example the state prohibits the sale of carnivores “which are not normally domesticated, but the law doesn’t ban the actual ownership of lions and tigers. And while allowed, Medlin said she thought it was "silly".
"Kangaroos don’t make good pets for most people," she suggested.
Wildlife rescuer's warning over 'real problem'
Seeing any Australian native animal on the side of the road in another country would be strange, it exposes what one Australian wildlife expert described as a "real problem" in the US with the wild animal trade.
Helen Round, a wildlife rescuer who manages the East Trentham Wildlife Shelter in Victoria, and specialises in kangaroos said they are a "gentle and misunderstood species that are not suitable as pets".
"America has a real problem with their wild animal trade and how they keep their wild animals in private collections," she told Yahoo. "It's not fair and not right."
Round points out that of the world's population of mammals, only 4 per cent are wild. "Wild animals should be allowed to be wild animals," she said. "A kangaroo is not going to look at your face and read your facial expressions like a dog does."
And while it appears that this kangaroo made it back to its home safely, Round says that it could have been a very different story. "It’s a powerful animal that can be dangerous," she pointed out, adding that anyone selling wild animals is "setting up situations of heartbreak".
"They're setting animals up for failure and bad publicity and for a human to get hurt," she said. "It's selling ticking time bombs to have a kangaroo on the loose."
Deakin University's wildlife ecologist professor Euan Ritchie echoed Round's point and told Yahoo that kangaroos need large expanses to be homed properly. "Because they are large animals with very strong legs, and sharp claws and toenails, in the wrong hands they can actually be quite dangerous to people," he said. “And of course kangaroos hopping downs streets puts kangaroos, pedestrians and drivers at risk.”
Kangaroos overseas spark backlash back home
This instance is not the first time Yahoo has reported on kangaroo sightings overseas. In the US, an online advertisement offering baby kangaroos for sale caused a backlash in Australia, with one person calling it “bloody outrageous”.
The post, shared locally on Facebook, showed six joeys dressed in disposable nappies, playing on a zebra skin rug. The business apparently behind the advertisement offered neutered males for US$2,500 and females for a hefty US$5,000.
Meanwhile, a Texas ranch offered hunters a chance to take part in a bloody "sport" involving Australian wildlife that would be illegal back home. “Kangaroos can be hunted legally year round in Texas, believe it or not it’s illegal to recreationally hunt Kangaroos in Australia,” the ranch boasts on its website.
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