By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
IT WAS the animal cruelty story that sent shockwaves through Melbourne – and the man first on the scene hopes CCTV, paid for by community donations, will stop it from ever happening again.
Battersby Way in Lysterfield South was splattered with the blood of two kangaroos and a joey in March this year.
Robert Bishop found the tortured bodies and decapitated joey near his driveway, after he disturbed the perpetrators.
He calls them “a group of yobbos”.
A night after the incident made headlines, Mr Bishop recalls a second visit.
“There hasn’t been another butchering like that one, but they came back and our rubbish bins ended up all over the road,” he said.
“Just ours, not our neighbours’ bins and it wasn’t windy.”
In the early hours of Wednesday 23 March near the Churchill National Park, Mr Bishop heard hoons and saw six to eight men gathered around a twitching kangaroo.
“They were standing in the headlights of a very large white 4WD … the unfortunate kangaroo was upside down, its legs splayed wide and one of the men was hacking away at it with a very large knife.
“The other males were talking excitedly and watching the spectacle, while another group was on the grass and I could hear a hammering sound coming from them.”
The grisly discovery prompted Mr Bishop into crowd funding for a set of CCTV cameras to catch the deviants in the act.
So far he has raised $1300.
“I am thrilled with that amount – I was absolutely astounded,” he said, even though it is not enough money to finish the project alone.
Due to the expensive nature of the project Mr Bishop has enlisted the help of a security company, and says the cameras will be up and working by the end of the year.
“Once we get a price for the two cameras – one will point up the road towards where the kangaroos are and one to catch them on their way out – my wife and I will make up the difference,” Mr Bishop said, keen to get the offenders’ registration plates to police.
“Two cameras will have it covered.
“Then we can prosecute those responsible for hassling the roos, which is not uncommon – the butchery is uncommon.”
After finding the gruesome scene Mr Bishop struggled, but says he’s doing better two months on.
“The nadir behaviour demonstrated by the people shocked me that night, I’d never actually witnessed anything like it,” he said.
“It took me a while to get over the shock and horror but now I’m good.”
To make a donation toward the installation of two CCTV cameras visit: http://bit.ly/1Pqj8NC
