In what is proving to be a banner week for cruelty against Australian fauna, an off-duty policeman is under investigation after allegedly stoning a wombat to death on the Eyre Peninsula.
ABC reports footage uploaded to social media last night shows a man, and a friend in a trailing car, tracking a wombat on a dirt road.
The man can be seen throwing a large rock at the wombat, startling in it. The pair follow the animal for a short distance. At his friend’s insistence, the man can be seen throwing another rock at the wombat, knocking it over.
“First bloke to ever see killing a wombat on foot with a rock, brother,” the friend can be heard saying.
Disturbing video has emerged of a wombat being stoned to death by an off-duty police officer on the Eyre Peninsula. Police have confirmed an investigation has been launched. MORE in #9NewsAt6 pic.twitter.com/ImGd5MnVMa
— 9News Adelaide (@9NewsAdel) October 3, 2019
SAPOL Commissioner Grant Stevens told the outlet the man was indeed a police officer, and that authorities were investigating the footage.
Stevens said SAPOL will treat the matter as an internal disciplinary matter, but will lay charges if any offences were committed.
The footage appeared one day after a 19-year-old NSW man was arrested and charged on serious animal cruelty offences after he allegedly killed 20 kangaroos with a ute in Tura Beach.
Not great.