PET KANGAROO

Northern Advocate, 15 September 1932, Page 2

PET KANGAROO

MAULS A POLICEMAN. FIGHT NEAR WOUNDED BOY. SYDNEY, September ?>. While a small boy lay unconscious on the back lawn of a house in Randwi.ek yesterday afternoon, with a shocking bullet wound in his head, a policeman and a savage kangaroo engaged in a desperate struggle over his body. The boy, John Lester Enemy, 8, of Pitt Street, Randwick, died last night in St. Vincent’s Hospital. s Sergeant Saunders, of the Darlinghurst police, who went to his aid, was frightfully mauled by the animal. His chest and arms were gashed and torn, and his clothing was ripped to pieces. He is under medical treatment for his wounds. Yesterday afternoon, three small boys, Reginald McKern, Matthew Carmody, 12, and John Enemy, were playing in the backyard of Carmody’s home in St. Mark’s Road, Randwick. They were boasting about their toys. • ‘'l’ve, got daddy’s gun, too,” said Carmody, and he ran inside his home, clambered up on top of the wardrobe and grasped his father’s old police seiviee revolver. His mother was not aware that the weapon was secreted there.

The children gathered round him in an admiring group and examined the weapon. Suddenly there was an explosion. John Enemy screamed and fell to the ground. The other two children" fled. Sergeant Saunders, who lives next door, was digging in his garden when ho heard the shot. He thought it was a gas explosion; He looked over the fence and saw the wounded boy jying blooding on the ground. The policeman scrambled over the fence and ran to the boy’s side. He was bending down over the child when he was struck a violent blow on his body, and flung backwards to the lawn. He had been attacked by the Carmody’s pot, an “old man” kangaroo. The animal, which is usually docile, sprang upon the policeman as he was scrambling to his ffet and clawed wildly at him. Sergeant Saunders vainly attempted to beat the animal off. He closed with it, punched it savagely, and kicked it fiercely. Again and again the kangaroo attacked him. It scratched his arms, caught his shirt in its sharp claws, and tore it from his body. Although the sergeant had been seriously gashed and was bleeding profusely from his wounds, the kangaroo had been badly battered, and moved away from the man. Once again the sergeant beht down to lift Up the

conscious child. There was a piercing scream behind him. He turned and saw that the kangaroo was , attacking one of the children. He realised then that he would not bo able to move the wounded child until the infuriated kangaroo had been quietened. Accordingly, he sprang upon the animal, and bore it down, grasping it. tightly around the throat. Gradually its struggles ceased. In the meantime, Sergeant Saunders’ son had arrived. He tore down the clothes line, and the two men bound the .animal tightly, and lashed it to a post. The injured boy was carried to the Eastern Suburbs Ambulance waggon, which had been summoned, and was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital. A doctor was called, and the policeman was treated for his injuries. The kangaroo was brought to Sydney from Moree several years ago. Its new environment apparently suited it, for it developed amazingly, and now is more than six feet in height. Several months ago it escaped and caused astonishment at Coogce by bounding down the main thoroughfare with many men in pursuit. On another occasion, it badly mauled a neighbour of the Carmodys.