LAVERKIN – A creature from down under hopped through a LaVerkin neighborhood Thursday afternoon, giving a few residents a startled jump back after it escaped from the home of a local family.
“It turned out to be a wallaby, and it’s somebody’s pet,” LaVerkin Police Officer Amber Crouse said.
At approximately 12:20 p.m., the LaVerkin Police Department received a report of a baby kangaroo on the loose in a residential neighborhood.
“I thought, ‘Well, this is a joke,’ and it wasn’t,’” LaVerkin Animal Control Officer Patti Dekker said.
Officers responded to the scene and found not a kangaroo, but a wallaby loose in a cow pasture.
“It got into a field and some cows were chasing it,” Crouse said.
Onlookers who saw the wallaby being pursued by the cows were concerned for the animal’s safety and called authorities. Crouse said her own children saw the wallaby drinking out of a ditch.
“I think it just got scared and got out of (the owner’s) fence,” Crouse said. “Yeah, it scared some cows.”
Just as animal control officers arrived at the scene, so did the wallaby’s owners. The owners were able to crate the animal and take it back home, Crouse said.
Authorities are now looking into the legalities of the family owning such an exotic pet.
“We’ve been working with a bunch of different agencies to try and work out if it’s legal,” Crouse said.
“The owners are being really cooperative,” she added.
For the present, the wallaby is back home with its LaVerkin family.
“It’s with the owners right now,” Crouse said. “We don’t know what we’re going to do with it quite yet but hopefully we’ll know soon.”
Related posts
- Council supports police actions regarding loose bull; considers BLM, billboard issues
- Bull goes on rampage; animal run over, shot by police
- You are your monkey’s keeper: Party behind loose monkey located
- Monkey on the loose in Coral Canyon apprehended; police searching for owner
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.
Every time I read a story like this in the news, I am left pondering the same question…. Where does one go to get a pet like that?
We have them running wild here… they also are very good tasting, So nice to know that its gonna feel like home when I get there with wallabies bouncing around
AWESOME! I am just glad they did not run the poor guy over and then put a bullet in its head. GO FALCONS!
Hey Josh go have a soda
Wallabies do not live in the jungle… So why the headline?