Gumleaf
March 23rd, 2009, 12:06 AM
12:40 AEST Mon Mar 23 2009
Vandals set loose 15 kangaroos from an Australian theme park in southern France, sparking a major search operation, with three marsupials still on the loose.
"When we arrived on Saturday morning, five pens had been broken open, their padlocks were smashed and the perimeter fence was torn in several places," said Carole Masson, owner of the nature reserve in southwestern Carcassonne.
"We had 15 missing kangaroos -- it was complete panic," she told AFP.
Firefighters, police and gendarmes were mobilised to track down the animals as they bounded through the woods.
"We found five in the park, and some more in the woods nearby. But three are still out there somewhere," Masson said, adding that a warning has gone out to local drivers for fear the animals could stray onto a nearby highway.
"They are not aggressive or nervous animals by nature," she said. "They're probably just grazing quietly away somewhere."
The theme park, which houses Australian animals alongside exhibits on Aboriginal culture and gold-digging, made French headlines last October when a a pack of hunting dogs attacked and killed 44 kangaroos.
Vandals set loose 15 kangaroos from an Australian theme park in southern France, sparking a major search operation, with three marsupials still on the loose.
"When we arrived on Saturday morning, five pens had been broken open, their padlocks were smashed and the perimeter fence was torn in several places," said Carole Masson, owner of the nature reserve in southwestern Carcassonne.
"We had 15 missing kangaroos -- it was complete panic," she told AFP.
Firefighters, police and gendarmes were mobilised to track down the animals as they bounded through the woods.
"We found five in the park, and some more in the woods nearby. But three are still out there somewhere," Masson said, adding that a warning has gone out to local drivers for fear the animals could stray onto a nearby highway.
"They are not aggressive or nervous animals by nature," she said. "They're probably just grazing quietly away somewhere."
The theme park, which houses Australian animals alongside exhibits on Aboriginal culture and gold-digging, made French headlines last October when a a pack of hunting dogs attacked and killed 44 kangaroos.