As humans, we love giving animals safe, happy homes to live in. It brings us pleasure to provide our pets with fulfilling lives.
One man thought he was doing the right thing by housing a wild wallaby in his garage, then it turned out that his illegal marsupial pet was only the tip of the iceberg.
Authorities received an anonymous tip one day, but it was no ordinary call. A concerned citizen said that a malnourished wallaby was seen inside a suburban garage in East Rockaway, New York. The member of the kangaroo family had somehow ended up very far from his true home in Australia.
They quickly made their way to the scene and investigated a man named Larry Wallach's home. There, they found the little wallaby in frightening conditions.
"He was in a garage in the middle of winter with no air circulation, no heat, nothing. So, I mean, he was kind of just fending for himself," Doctor David Collins of Mineola Animal Hospital explains in the video below, posted on February 2, 2017.
The poor wallaby is frail, bony, and 20 pounds underweight. Dr. Collins continues, "He has just no muscle on his body at all. His spine is sticking out, his legs are like twigs, and you can imagine that, you know, a wally and a kangaroo are going to have some powerful legs and pretty powerful leg muscles to go along with that. He does not."
As it turns out, this isn't the first time wild animals have been recovered from Larry's house. The self-proclaimed "caretaker for exotic animals" has a history of holding a full-grown lion in his house, as well as a panther in a trailer on his driveway. Thankfully, both have since been removed from Larry's home. It depends on the specific animal, but keeping exotic creatures as pets is definitely illegal, and nobody wants to see this happen again.
After regaining his health, the wallaby will be sent to an animal refuge habitat. Dr. Collins says, "If I could buy him a plane ticket back to Australia, I would buy him a plane ticket back to Australia."
Although he was caught in a horrible situation, it's important to remember that the malnourished wallaby is now being nutured back to health and learning to trust humans again.
Please SHARE this wallaby's story to spread awareness of the harm done by housing illegal pets and to wish this little guy a full recovery!
