Police investigate death of koala screwed to post

THE death of a koala found screwed to a post in Australia has sparked an outcry from animal rights groups and prompted a police investigation.

The koala may have been alive when it was “cruelly attached” to the post of a wooden shelter using building screws, though it was dead when found on Wednesday, said Koala Rescue Queensland.

“Police are currently investigating the matter,” Senior Sergeant Pierre Senekal, at nearby Kenilworth, said on Thursday.

The koala was listed as a “vulnerable” species under an Australian conservation law in 2012. There are fewer than 100,000 of the animals left in the wild, perhaps even as few as 43,000, according to Australian Koala Foundation estimates.