Teenager filmed biting chunks out of possum, as RSPCA condemns spate of attacks

Police investigate after animal welfare group shares social media footage of four attacks on possums in Queensland

Australian Associated Press

Tue 5 Mar 2019 06.13 GMT

A teenager has bitten chunks of fur and flesh out of a possum’s rump in one of several disturbing attacks on possums in Queensland.

The RSPCA has shared footage of four attacks, all involving possums, after concerned people found them on social media.

The most disturbing one shows a teenager being egged on by mates in Brisbane as he bites and chews flesh torn from one animal with his teeth.

The mammal’s leg was moving and it appeared to be alive.

In another incident in far-north Queensland, a possum caught in a net is hurled to a waiting pack of dogs that tear it to pieces.

No arrests have been made in relation to the incidents, but police are investigating.

“These are quite deliberate and premeditated acts of animal cruelty and show a complete lack of empathy,” RSPCA Queensland spokesperson Michael Beatty said.

“Without meaning to sound too melodramatic, the links between this type of cruelty and acts of violence toward humans have been well researched over the years.”

Continued 

Baby dolphin dies after being paraded on beach for photographs

Wildlife group warns holidaymakers that the vulnerable mammals should be returned to sea if they get too close to shore after animal dies at Argentine resort

The dolphin died of suspected dehydration after being paraded around  Photo: Hernan Coria/CEN

By Chiara Palazzo

1:05AM GMT 18 Feb 2016

This is the moment when a baby dolphin was carried on to an Argentine beach for selfies, condemning it to death in the hot sun.

Hernan Coria 

Hernan Coria captured the incident in photographs as the crowd at the beach resort of Santa Teresita paraded the La Plata dolphin - also known as the Franciscana dolphin - around like a trophy.

The episode has caused the Wildlife Foundation in Argentina to publish a reminder about the vulnerable species, which is only present off the coast of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

"Recently photographs taken in Santa Teresita showing a group of people passing a dolphin around on dry land on two occasions have emerged. At least one of these animals has died.

"This incident should help the public understand the urgent need to return these dolphins to the sea when they get close to the shore."

Read on ...

Some Drivers Intentionally Run Over Turtles, Clemson Student Finds During Experiment (VIDEO)

Posted: 12/27/2012 6:10 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/27/2012 10:33 pm EST

A Clemson University student was surprised by his findings this week after attempting to research the best way to ensure the safety of turtles trying to cross busy roadways.

Nathan Weaver, a 22-year-old senior in the School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences, was trying to figure our how to help the turtles in their risky endeavor, but instead ended up discovering the extent to which some drivers go out of their way to flatten the hapless reptiles, according to the Associated Press.

"It was a bit surprising. I've heard of people and from friends who knew people that ran over turtles. But to see it out here like this was a bit shocking," Weaver told the AP.

For his initial experiment, Weaver placed rubber turtles in the middle of a busy street near the Clemson campus in South Carolina and watched as seven out of 267 cars purposely crushed the fake turtles in the space of an hour.

Read more about the experiment here.

Weaver's observations are not necessarily new, however. In July, NASA employee Mark Rober documented his own, similar experiment measuring the rate motorists tried to run over rubber turtles, snakes and tarantulas planted on the roadway.

Of the 1,000 cars Rober watched go by, six percent of drivers went out of their way to try to hit the rubber animals, which were stationed safely on the shoulder, Gizmodo reports.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/27/drivers-intentionally-run-over-turtles-college-experiment_n_2371485.html