Angry Coombabah resident photographs suspected attack dogs
CALLOUS owners are letting bloodthirsty hounds off the leash and hiding so the dogs can hunt kangaroos in Gold Coast wetlands.
In the latest twist in the probe, residents living next to Coombabah reserve have taken photos of the dogs believed to be responsible for the maulings.
“They’re still letting their dogs come down here, but now there’s no sign of the owners. So the dogs still get their kill and the owners don’t get fined,” an angry Steve Jeffery of The Estuary and Summer Waters Resort Neighbourhood Watch Focus Group said.
The Bulletin last month reported a resident leapt into waist-deep water to save a kangaroo being mauled by dogs, while the owners of the hounds hurled abuse from the riverbank.
The Gold Coast City Council and RSPCA are investigating the hunts. Offenders face fines of up to $30,000. Council officers and police are patrolling the area.
Mr Jeffery said two vicious dogs, with spiked collars, were spotted around the reserve last week.
“I saw them running at a helluva pace,” he said. “A resident recognised the black dog as the same one that recently tried to kill a kangaroo near her house.”
Mr Jeffery has distributed a photo of the dogs to most of the 240 residents at The Estuary and the Summer Waters Resort.
“There have also been a couple of suspicious characters wandering around here, real grubs.”
RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty said: “Kangaroos are native wildlife, so they’re protected from this type of activity. You can’t just go down and shoot or hunt them, definitely not.”
Mr Beatty said the only organised, legal culling of kangaroos was carried out through Biosecurity Queensland, but this did not happen often.
Residents said they were upset strangers were coming into the area to set their dogs on kangaroos.
“We love the wildlife around here and we don’t want them scared away or hurt,” one resident said.
A Gold Coast City Council spokesman said a dog owner had been spoken to and inquiries were continuing.