'Kick in the guts': Confronting prank on volunteer rescuers
WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: A group of volunteer marine rescuers in New South Wales made a shocking discovery when they arrived for duty on Sunday.
The four volunteers approached Marine Rescue Shellharbour and were greeted with a shark’s head impaled on a fence, in what has been called a “confronting” prank.
“They were actually quite taken back. Nothing like that has ever happened to us before,” Unit Commander, Richard O’Connor told Yahoo7.
“We don’t condone it and certainly don’t want it happening again,” he added.
Two graphic pictures of the upsetting find were shared on Facebook by both the Marine Rescue NSW and Marine Rescue Shellharbour.
Marine Rescue NSW wrote: “It’s a kick in the guts for our committed volunteers who give up their time to save lives on the water.”
In the distressing images the animal appears to have pizza and a cigarette inside its mouth.
The volunteers don’t think it was a targeted attack, but believe the incident was possibly a joke in poor taste.
“If you know the people who caught the shark or the perpetrators we don’t need to know the names, we just need them be aware that we do not take kindly to this,” Marine Rescue Shellharbour wrote online.
Multiple social media users labelled the prank “disrespectful” and “disgraceful”.
“My husband risks his life by doing rescues and people need to be more respectful,” one woman wrote.
Marine Rescue said it has spoken with police and won’t be following the incident up unless some other information comes to light.
