Groundhog
08-21-2008, 06:30 PM
Mutilated koala bashed, then dismembered | NEWS.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24219942-1248,00.html)
Mutilated koala bashed, then dismembered
By Glenis Green
August 22, 2008 12:04am
A SHOCKINGLY mutilated koala found dead on a property at Clear Mountain in Queensland has become the latest victim in a string of recent attacks on the Australian icon.
Caboolture Koala Care & Rescue spokeswoman Anika Lehmann said her team had been called this week to the Branch Creek Rd property northwest of Brisbane, where the owner, a police officer, had found the dead koala with a surgically removed left hindquarter.
Ms Lehmann said there was no blood, indicating it had probably been dumped there.
"It was a four-year-old male koala and we took it to the Australian Wildlife Hospital (at Australia Zoo at Beerwah) for a post-mortem," she said.
The post-mortem examination established it had been killed by extensive abdominal trauma, with the leg amputated after death.
"They reckoned it was the subject of a bashing death," said Ms Lehmann.
Earlier this month, a baby koala was killed and another female koala and its joey were battered by rocks and sticks by a gang of young men in a Kallangur park, in Brisbane's outer north.
Police are investigating these attacks. The dead 300g joey had sustained a broken right arm, crushed skull and damaged eye.
The rescued mother koala and baby have since made a full recovery at the wildlife hospital.
Ms Lehmann said at the time that the same gang had been responsible for nailing live magpies and cane toads to trees in Jim Akers Park off Sylvester Drive at Kallangur.
Mutilated koala bashed, then dismembered
By Glenis Green
August 22, 2008 12:04am
A SHOCKINGLY mutilated koala found dead on a property at Clear Mountain in Queensland has become the latest victim in a string of recent attacks on the Australian icon.
Caboolture Koala Care & Rescue spokeswoman Anika Lehmann said her team had been called this week to the Branch Creek Rd property northwest of Brisbane, where the owner, a police officer, had found the dead koala with a surgically removed left hindquarter.
Ms Lehmann said there was no blood, indicating it had probably been dumped there.
"It was a four-year-old male koala and we took it to the Australian Wildlife Hospital (at Australia Zoo at Beerwah) for a post-mortem," she said.
The post-mortem examination established it had been killed by extensive abdominal trauma, with the leg amputated after death.
"They reckoned it was the subject of a bashing death," said Ms Lehmann.
Earlier this month, a baby koala was killed and another female koala and its joey were battered by rocks and sticks by a gang of young men in a Kallangur park, in Brisbane's outer north.
Police are investigating these attacks. The dead 300g joey had sustained a broken right arm, crushed skull and damaged eye.
The rescued mother koala and baby have since made a full recovery at the wildlife hospital.
Ms Lehmann said at the time that the same gang had been responsible for nailing live magpies and cane toads to trees in Jim Akers Park off Sylvester Drive at Kallangur.