Letter to the Editor: Always check on wildlife

DEAR News Of The Area,

TO the person who hit the young female kangaroo on Seaham Road, just past Sophia Jane Drive, heading towards Raymond Terrace last Tuesday morning (29/7/25) and just left her there without checking her pouch.

I thought you should know, and all of the other drivers who just drove past, that she had a joey in her pouch that climbed its way out of its mother’s pouch, only to die less than a metre away from its mother in the middle of the road.

That joey could have lived if the driver of the car which hit the mother had stopped to check the pouch and contacted WIRES or a native animal rescue organisation, or if another driver had stopped and checked.

Unfortunately when I drove past both the mother and the joey were dead in the middle of the road.

I moved them both off the road onto the footpath with tears in my eyes knowing that the joey was still alive after the mother was killed but that nobody stopped to check.

A few weeks earlier, my daughter and I had checked the pouch of another young female kangaroo who had also been hit along Seaham road, just up past the preschool.

We found a male joey still alive which we took to a wildlife carer who found that the joey had a broken leg.

That joey has had his leg attended to and he is still alive in the care of the amazing wildlife carers.

Please stop to check any kangaroos or any other wildlife that has been hit.  They may be carrying babies that can be saved.

Carry pillowcases and towels in your car in case.

If you check an animal you can spray paint a cross on it to indicate to others that it has been checked.

Please contact ‘Wildlife in Need of Care’ on 1300 946 295 if you find any injured wildlife.

Regards,
Gail THOMPSON.