Fucking hell
Sorry for swearing. But. Fucking hell.
Three people were taken to hospital on Saturday after being attacked by a kangaroo in Queensland, Australia.
Linda Smith, a 64-year-old wildlife carer, was left with a punctured lung and broken ribs after the attack, whilst her husband was left with multiple lacerations and her son, thankfully, with only minor injuries.
1 patient with serious injuries and 2 with minor injuries being transported to Toowoomba Hospital by road
— Queensland Ambulance (@QldAmbulance) October 13, 2018
The family were helping feed kangaroos as they were hit with drought conditions in the Northeast of the country. As they were doing so, a six-foot-tall grey kangaroo attacked the family, who attempted to fend it off with brooms and a shovel.
Australian wildlife officials have stated that kangaroo attacks are rare. Mrs Smith has also stated that she doesn’t want the animal hunted down and killed following the attack.
Speaking from hospital, she told the Brisbane Times:Â “This one kangaroo came in and I thought it was Golly Gosh, one of the kangaroos we have raised. He was a huge grey, would have been at least 6ft.”
“Jim [her husband] was on the ground and the kangaroo just kept at him.”
She then describes fetching a broom but the kangaroo knocked it out of her hand and attacked her too, like some kind of mad kangaroo horror film.
“Then my son came out to try and help me and hit him over the head with a shovel,” she said.
Mrs Smith was treated for her injuries and underwent surgery on Sunday. Both her and her husband regularly feed around 30 kangaroos and wallabies who usually arrived on their property every night to be fed grain and chaff – which a quick Google search tells me is ‘husks of corn’, nice – during the drought.
AÂ Queensland Ambulance Service supervisor stated that without her intervention, Jim Smith may have lost his life during the attack.
