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16th October 2023
07:38am BST
A former police officer bravely rescued his beloved dog from the claws of a two-metre-tall kangaroo that was trying to drown it.
During a walk along the Murray River, in Mildura, Victoria, on Sunday Mick Moloney noticed one of his dogs, Hutchy, was missing.
Mick had earlier noticed his dogs were unusually quiet while they were walking the edge of the river, and when he took a proper look he realised why.
“I saw a kangaroo … with his arms in the water, basically just staring at me,” he told Australian TV show Sunrise.
“Next thing you know, Hutchy came up gasping for air, water spilling out of his mouth and screaming his head off. “I was like, ‘are you kidding me?’.”
Mick, who lives in Mildura, tried to scare the marsupial away but that didn't even make the roo flinch.
So he went after his dog, with his phone in hand so he could record it.
A video posted on TikTok shows him saying, "let go of my dog" before taking a swipe at the kangaroo, who struck him back straight away leading to the video going blank.
Mick re-appeared a few seconds later and Hutchy was free to swim away.
Mick then splashed the kangaroo before walking back to the river bank laughing.
He told the 7News programme: “I got a few [scratches]. My forearm was killing me for most of the day. It was a bit of a punch on.”
People on social media could not believe their eyes when they saw the footage.
"Kangaroo drowning me in water fear unlocked," one said.
Another marvelled at the kangaroo's physique: "Goddam the biceps on that kangaroo."
Kangaroos only eat plants, but they are known as vicious fighters.
Langaroo ecologist Graeme Coulson, University of Melbourne, told NBC News: "There's a very strong instinct – kangaroos will go to water if they're threatened by a predator.
"In the case of a big male, they can definitely drown dogs. If the dog swims out to them, they've got strong arms and big claws and they can drown [the dog]."
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