{"id":89961,"date":"2026-09-07T07:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T07:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/89961\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T07:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T07:34:22","slug":"five-animals-shot-with-arrows-or-darts-in-recent-weeks-across-southern-tasmania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/89961\/","title":{"rendered":"Five animals shot with arrows or darts in recent weeks across southern Tasmania"},"content":{"rendered":"

A wallaby found with an arrow through its body near Austins Ferry is one of at least five cases of wildlife being shot with arrows or darts across southern Tasmania in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary director Greg Irons said the Austins Ferry wallaby was the second arrow attack reported to the sanctuary in a single week, with another case at Clarendon Vale and a further incident at Oyster Cove a few weeks prior.<\/p>\n

A pademelon was also found with a dart in it in Lenah Valley a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the worst spate that I\u2019ve seen in my history,\u201d Irons told Pulse.<\/p>\n

\"\"At least five cases of wildlife shot with arrows or darts have been reported<\/p>\n

He said the wallaby was still moving well because its legs were not affected, making it extremely difficult to catch.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor that poor animal, it\u2019s gonna be in pain every step that it takes, every time it bends down to eat and it\u2019ll likely just die of infection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Irons called hunting with a bow and arrow in Tasmania illegal and barbaric<\/p>\n

Irons said hunting with a bow and arrow is illegal in Tasmania and called for tighter restrictions on sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to try and not have these things as easily accessible where you can just walk into camping shops and buy them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He urged anyone with information to come forward, saying wildlife rangers treat such cases seriously and will pursue forensic investigation if the animal is recovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever that is, he\u2019s got a couple of mates who know that he did that and if they\u2019re horrified by that, which they should be, then report it,\u201d Irons said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Wildlife rangers will pursue forensic investigation if the animal is recovered<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t speak up, then you\u2019re part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irons said the issue went beyond animal welfare, warning that a person reckless enough to fire arrows at wildlife posed a danger to people too.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bow and arrow, that could be a human on the other end of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo animal should be shot with a bow and arrow, it\u2019s just barbaric.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Wildlife rangers will pursue forensic investigation if the animal is recovered. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

He said he hoped this latest case was an accident, but it was likely not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about having a heart and at the end of the day \u2026 that\u2019s what makes us human, is having compassion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully someone reflects on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully it was just a horrible accident and something they\u2019ll learn from and never, never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sanctuary is monitoring the injured wallaby in hope it slows down enough to be caught and treated before it dies.<\/p>\n

Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary provides care to injured, orphaned and displaced animals and works to safeguard biodiversity and animal welfare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wallaby found with an arrow through its body near Austins Ferry is one of at least five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21],"class_list":["post-89961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}