SYDNEY - AUSTRALIAN police on Wednesday launched a hunt for the killer of a kangaroo which was shot in the stomach with an arrow and died what animal welfare workers described as an agonising and brutal death.
Police said a groundskeeper discovered the stricken marsupial on Wednesday morning on a golf course west of Brisbane in Queensland state.
Officers had to call in RSPCA inspectors to put the animal down, police said.
'This was a particularly brutal act,' RSPCA chief inspector Mick Pecic said. 'The arrow used was a hunting arrow that slices through the organs as it enters the body. The animal would have been in absolute agony.'
Mr Pecic said a number of kangaroos had been killed with arrows in the same area in recent years.
Last month, police charged a 27-year-old man with animal cruelty for allegedly shooting two kangaroos with arrows in Victoria state, leaving one of them with a shaft embedded in its head.
Both animals fully recovered but the RSPCA has called on authorities to vigorously pursue anyone responsible for targeting kangaroos, which are protected species in Australia. -- AFP
