 Kangaroo shot with tranquilizer dart, left to die
St Marys, Sydney, NSW (AU)Incident Date: Friday, Mar 31, 2006
Disposition: Not Charged
Person of Interest: Delfin Lend Lease
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Authorities are investigating the death of a kangaroo found shot with a tranquilliser dart on a major Sydney housing development. About 100 kangaroos have died at the former ADI site at St Marys since a population control program was implemented by the developer.
On April 18, 2006, a female kangaroo was found in a pond at the site, where work is under way on 5000 new homes, its face bloodied from running into trees as it fled in a panic. A tranquilliser dart was hanging from its leg. The animal is one of about 3000 kangaroos on the 1535ha site, known as Sydney's "Secret Garden". It escaped from a mob being rounded up for injection with a contraceptive implant by specialists working for developer Delfin Lend Lease. Since buying the site in May 2004, Lend Lease has been responsible for reducing kangaroo numbers through contraception and sterilisation under a government-approved plan. Tranquilliser darts are used to sedate the kangaroos for implantation.
A Delfin Lend Lease spokesman confirmed about 5 per cent � 100 � of the 2000 kangaroos treated under the program had died. The deaths resulted from shock, old age and illness, the spokesman said, but the 95 per cent survival rate which was considered to be "good". ADI Residents' Action Group spokesman Geoff Brown said he was concerned about animals on the site. "This kangaroo appears to have suffered a horrific death and in any other situation this would be an act of animal cruelty," Mr Brown said. "But because Delfin Lend Lease have licences from (the Department of Environment and Conservation) and overall support from the Government they think they are above the law." "How many other animals met a similar, silent fate out of view from the public?" he said.
Lend Lease project manager Arthur Ilias said, under the process, kangaroos are herded towards holding yards, shot with a tranquilliser dart, implanted and then released into large, fenced paddocks in the centre of the ADI site. Mr Ilias said the dead kangaroo had jumped a containment fence. A Department of Environment and Conservation spokeswoman said information was being sought from Delfin. References
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