An American tourist who would have been filmed by taking and running away with a wild vombate puppy can be forced to leave Australia if the authorities find out that she has violated visa conditions.
A widely shared video on social networks allegedly shows Sam Jones, which has 92,000 followers on Instagram, running with the vombate puppy towards a car while his mother distresses her.
It is unclear when the video was recorded, not even the place, but it was at night when it seems to be a rural road somewhere in southeastern Australia, where most animals of the species reside.
Experts say animals in the video were common vombits, the only one of the three Australian Marsupial species that is not threatened or endangered.
But, like all Australian native animals, they are protected by law.
Australia Minister of Internal Affairs, Tony Burke, reported that the department was examining Jones’s visa to determine if she had violated any condition of her stay.
He suggested that she may never be welcome back to Australia.
“Given the level of thorough research that will happen if she requests a visa again, I will be surprised if she is bothered to try again,” he said in an email statement to CNN . “I can’t wait for Australia to see her leaving, I don’t expect her to return.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese approached the issue on Thursday (13) at night (local time), suggesting that Jones try his luck with another Australian animal that was most likely to fight.
“Taking a vombate puppy out of his mother and clearly causing suffering to his mother is simply an outrage,” he said.
“I suggest this supposed influencer, maybe she can try some other Australian animals. Remove a crocodile puppy from your mother and see how you make it. ”
THE CNN He contacted Jones, but did not receive an answer.
The video, allegedly deleted from an Instagram social network account that was made private, and the Tiktok app in a now excluded account, shows a woman running down the street while holding a baby vombate.
“I just got a baby vombate,” a man laughs out of the camera, apparently referring to Jones.
“Look at the mother, running after her,” he laughs again, referring to the adult animal, who chases the woman on the street.
The video horrified ecologists and wildlife caregivers, who say that the sudden separation of Vombate and his baby, known as Joey, would have triggered stress reactions in both animals.
“Start up a baby away from his mother, run away with him and let the baby swing in his hands, is a very important thing that should not be done,” said Professor Barry Brook, an ecologist at the University of Tasmania.
Vombates usually do not attack humans, but have incredibly strong claws they use to dig the ground. If used on human skin, they can cause great damage and infections, said Brook.
“It is not a situation where you or any other public member should put themselves, both for the good of animals and their own good. And transmit this on social networks to get likes and accesses, and so on as an influencer is totally counterproductive, ”he added.
Wild -life veterinarian Tanya Bishop of Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (Wires), commented that the video does not show the animals gathering, or if the marsupial was injured because it was carried by the front paws.
“My concern is whether or not that marsupial had a temporary, painful and debilitating wound or something that could have been permanent,” she said. Bishop said that wildlife authorities are trying to determine where the video was filmed.
According to Australian national broadcaster, ABC, Jones responded to some of the online criticism before making his social media channels private, saying that the baby was “carefully insured for a minute in total and then returned to his mother.”
“They went back to the bush together, completely unharmed,” she wrote. “I never capture wild animals that will be harmed by it.”
Common vombates, the species seen in the video, are not considered vulnerable, unlike the Vombate of the Southern Hairy Nose, which is “almost threatened”, and that of the northern hairy nose, which is listed as “critically endangered” by the red list of IUCN.
Tanya Bishop said that although they are not in danger, ordinary vombates are increasingly stressed due to busy roads, habitat and scabies – a potentially fatal skin disease.
“All our wild animals need as much protection as we can give them,” Bishop said. “Over the 25 years I am a wildlife veterinarian, I have seen many species go as far as threatened, threatened, and potentially extinct.”
Bishop’s advice to people who come across Australian wildlife: “Be quiet and enjoy their observation at a distance.”
“Record videos silently if you want; You will see really beautiful interactions. And honestly, in the case of the vombates, some of them are very funny, because the vombating babies are very sassy and mischievous. ” He added.
This content was originally published in tourist may have seen canceled after taking wild animal in Australia on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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