Last
Thursday, about 9 am on our morning walk along Centre Rd, just east of Gravelly
Point Rd, we came across a very depressing sight.
A lady with
a young child had pulled up beside a young kangaroo which had both legs broken
and was threshing about beside the road, trying to drag itself off into the
bushes.
The
kangaroo had been hit by another vehicle, the driver of which which had not
bothered to stop to deal with the damage done.
This brief
note is a plea for drivers on the island to slow down and watch out for wild
life.
A major reason most
of us live on the island is because we are privileged to share our environment
with our fellow creatures. We need to respect their space.
We
understand that accidents do happen. If you are unfortunate enough to hit an
animal, please accept that you should stop and deal with the problem. It is not
fair to leave this responsibility to the
accidental discovery by others of an injured animal.
There are
volunteers on the island who are will do their best for injured animals. Can we
suggest that you put this phone number in your mobile phone in case you should
need it one day.
Raymond
Island Koala and Wildlife Centre 0447470905.
And
remember – any place on the island is at most 6 km from anywhere else. If you
slow down from the legal limit to 40 km/hr, it will only take you at most an extra 3 minutes longer to get where you are
going. Is a kangaroo's life worth that
three minutes? And, at peak times, there will be another ferry in 10 minutes
anyway.
Andrew and Terry MacGregor
Sunday 15 March
