Zoo Visitors In China Stone Kangaroo To Death Because It Wouldn't Hop For Them
They wanted to "wake" the animal up.
By John Lim — 24 Apr 2018, 11:49 AM
A female kangaroo in a zoo located in Fuzhou, Fujian province recently died after she was pelted with rocks by visitors – all because she wasn't "active" enough
Although the 12-year-old marsupial had died over a month ago, the news only surfaced this week, The New York Times revealed.
Zookeepers found the animal with a smashed foot after at least one visitor apparently threw stones in an attempt to make it jump.
Autopsy results reportedly showed that the kangaroo died from a ruptured kidney, after veterinarians treated the injured foot not knowing that the animal was bleeding internally
"Some adults see the kangaroos sleeping and then pick up rocks to throw at them," a zookeeper told the Haibattered via Metropolis News, as reported by Stuff NZ.
Employees tried to dissuade the crowd, the worker said, but "after we cleared the display area of rocks, they went to find them elsewhere."
A few days later at the same zoo, a five-year-old male kangaroo was injured after one visitor allegedly threw part of a brick into the enclosure
Thankfully, the animal survived and is expected to make a full recovery.
After both incidents, zookeepers removed all objects that visitors could throw into the animals' enclosure. Despite the effort, the problem still exists.
"These adults see a kangaroo sleeping and go pick up rocks to hit it with," said a zookeeper surnamed Zhang as quoted by Shanghaiist.
"We’ve cleared out all the rocks from the habitat area, and they just go look for them elsewhere, it’s disgusting!"