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Murders and mysteries
This page is dedicated to our dear friends who are not already featured on the other pages of the Sponsoroo website. These beautiful and gentle souls have been etched into the hearts of many people, including some who will read this page. These people will remember with fondness the times they have shared with these exquisite beings. Unfortunately, I will not be able to mention all of them here because of space.
Remember dear Buji? She came to me on 9th February 1990 while we were living out near Hay, NSW. When she was handed to me, I peeped into the towel in which she was wrapped and saw 2 big brown eyes and 2 skinny little arms. She reminded me of a friend in India, whose nickname was Buji (pronounced with an oo sound as in "book"), hence her name! She taught me a lot about raising little kangaroos and I adored her from the very first minute. She was a Red.
About a year later, someone asked me if I could take a male Red. I named him Nehroo after the Indian Prime Minister. Soon after, we came home from the paddocks one day, and there on the back doorknob was hanging a jumper. Inside was a little Red female, who I named Uluroo. Word had spread that I was raising little kangaroos, so more treasures whose mothers who had been shot or killed in car accidents came in. I didn't keep them locked behind fences, so as they were ready they went to the wild. Sometimes they would come home, sometimes we would see them out in the paddocks. In those days I put collars on them, with red reflective metal rivetted on, in the hope that people would respect the fact that these kangaroos were very special ones. Our neighbours were terrific and would let me know if they saw them. Several times, Buji would turn up at someone's house. So they would ring me and I would go in the car and collect her. As you can imagine, she would take up all of the front seat, with that long tail stretching out behind her and she would peer over the steering wheel!
Nehroo, grew into a handsome gentle young man. One day in January 1993, Rowie saw him out in one of the paddocks on our property. The next night he was dead. He was murdered in cold blood, by a "professional" shooter who thought he was being so smart. (Words to the effect of )"Look at my prize", he bragged in a note, left on Nehroo's collar, when he took him to the chiller, near Hay. A chiller is a cold storage place where the shooters take their dead kangaroos. The shooter was either poaching on our land where he wasn't meant to be shooting or he shot him from the road, which is illegal too. Also they are not meant to leave the heads on when they take kangaroos to the chiller.
We reported it to National Parks and Wildlife Service, our Government agency who are meant to be protecting our native fauna. You can guess how much action was taken.
Similarly, there was Mal. A
few years later, when we were living elsewhere, a male Red named Mal was
released with us. When he was ready, he 
started adventuring to the wild and
gradually we would see less and less of him. We moved from that property to
here, but Mal and other friends stayed in that area. Last year, I heard that Mal
had been shot by a "professional" shooter and his collar was
"chucked over the fence". Once again it was reported to NPWS, this
time by AWPC (see Links page).
Can you believe that these guys would get probably about $10 only for each of those precious lives. And no-one in authority cares. Those beings who have shared their lives and gladdened the hearts of so many people and who are totally innocent and harmless......it's criminal. If they were million dollar racehorses someone may help to take action against such callous and sickening cruelty, but because they are kangaroos, it just shows the general attitude towards these superb creatures.
Cherookee, also was
murdered. He was shot for dog meat by a neighbour, even though he had a collar
on. So sad, so irresponsible and thoughtless. He had been such a friend to many,
with such a gentle loveable nature.
There are other people out there also who share the guilt of having blood on their hands and who have no excuse, those collars are very easy to see during the day or night. These kangaroos have all been just innocently out there in the wild, not causing any harm....
Even though Buji went out to the wild and had joeys, she would come home to visit and just before each time we moved, she would return home. So she moved here with us, aged 9 years old by then. We were very close and she would let me look in her pouch to see her joey growing, which was such a treat. I have learnt a lot from observing Buji.
Buji didn't return from one
of her trips away. Nor was I told that she turned up at anyone's house. But I
know she would have if she could.
I don't put collars on the kangaroos now, I realise sadly, that it makes no difference.
Other of our friends have mysteriously not returned to their mob, when I know they would have liked to if they could.
Rooby, Ace, Jimmy and Juliet, are 4 Reds who have been previously sponsored. But they have disappeared, so besides being worried about them and deeply saddened by their disappearance, I have had to take them off the program.
(Kangaroos need lots of positive and protective energy surrounding them.)
Jimmy
was the son of Rooby, born in March 1999. He
was a
mellow and gentle soul, so gorgeous with dark, serene eyes.
Juliet, was always a petite little treasure. She is in the photo with Viva in the page "Meet the kangaroos."
Ace
had lots of adventures away from home for weeks or months at a time and returned
to show us that he survived the dangers beyond the boundary fences. But we haven’t
seen him since early 2003. He then was over 5 years old and had started to
really fill out in his chest, biceps and forearms, was becoming very solid and
ever so handsome. Even though he was becoming rather bossy, we miss him very
much.
Rooby originally came from near Alice Springs in the centre
of
Australia. Her mother was killed for "bush tucker" and she went to
a carer who then moved down to near here. She was released here in
January'99. She had the sweetest nature and tolerated visitors very well! In July '01
she
disappeared for 6 months which was uncharacteristic, a mystery and a real
concern. She obviously went through a hard time and when she returned home,
she was without her young joey
and she had a broken foot.
Rooby went missing again during the middle of 2006 but this time did not return home.... It is such a tragedy to lose her, so so sad. A lot of people will feel her loss.
She had a number of joeys, mostly born a rusty red colour. Two of her daughters look very similar to Rooby and we see them occasionally out on the farm which is fantastic.
I must add, that we do have some good neighbours who are considerate and respectful of our love of our kangaroos, for which we are very appreciative.
We were very concerned that even though there weren't many Red kangaroos in this area, they were still being shot. So, this was brought to the attention of National Parks and Wildlife Service and they did say that they would stop issuing tags for Reds, which would have meant that Reds would be protected in this area.
However still they are being shot and cruelly wounded and tags are still being issued, which meant that NPWS went back on their word.