The hottest debate in news: The kangaroo punch

A palate-cleansing reminder that viral videos can happen anywhere, at any time. This guy went on a boar-hunting trip in the Australian bush back in June. The clip captures about 30 seconds of that trip. Result: 10 million views on YouTube and counting.

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The, er, punchline: He’s a zookeeper.

“Mr Tonkins is an experienced zookeeper and during his six years at Taronga Western Plains Zoo has always followed Taronga’s best practice approach to animal care and welfare,” it said in a statement.

“We continue to work with Mr Tonkins on his conduct in regards to this incident.”

The zoo said it was strongly opposed to humans striking animals, and to the practice of using dogs to hunt. It said Tonkins was not available for comment.

I assume an online lynch mob is organizing to have him fired, as that’s how Socially Conscious Internet Users amuse themselves in 2016. Two mitigating factors, though. One: The guy’s dog was in trouble. He moved in on the ‘roo to save another animal. Two: The ‘roo, which is diesel, stepped to him after the dog got free. Why the guy didn’t run, I don’t know, but I think he was right to perceive that it was aggressive, especially after what it had done to the dog. They don’t just punch and kick, they have claws, and this one seems to have reacted as though the guy were challenging its dominance. It was fight or flight. He made his choice.

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In the end, all he did was stun it. As one of his pals told an Aussie paper, “It was funny because the guy who did it is the most placid bloke. We laughed at him for chucking such a sh*t punch.” Easily the best human-animal fight since Conan punched that horse.

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David Strom 10:30 AM | November 15, 2024
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