Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Parks and Wildlife Chief Wildlife Officer Peter Ross says a croc has been removed from a trap, shot and beheaded on Gunn Point Road

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Parks and Wildlife Chief Wildlife Officer Peter Ross says a croc has been removed from a trap, shot and beheaded on Gunn Point Road · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Parks and Wildlife are calling for information from the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: public following on from a crocodile that's been removed from
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a trap, killed and beheaded. Now joining me on the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: line to tell us more about exactly what's going on
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: is the Chief Wildlife Officer, Peter Ross. Good morning, Peter.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Hi Katie, Peter.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: What has happened with this crocodile.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Well, what we think has happened is that, well, first
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the trap was dragged out of the water hole, not
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: knowing he did that sequence of events. The animal was
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: then dragged along Gunpoint Road for a few hundred meters,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: shot and not have been shot before it was dragged
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: along the road hopefully that happened, and then beheaded and
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: just left on the side of the road. And that
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: was reported to us, I think yesterday. So we've responded
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: and yeah that's what we found.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: My goodness. So where exactly did this happen? I know
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you mentioned Gunpoint Road, but where had that trap been
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: set up?
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a large calvert near the Shoulder Conservation is
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: the It's a popular area where people take their dogs,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: some people swim there and it's a known area for crocodiles.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: During the wet season in January. We did pull one
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: out well over three meters, so there's a dangerous area.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So, Peter, I'm assuming it's taken quite a bit of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: effort to pull that trap out, to drag it out,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and then to you know, to do what they have done.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Well, definitely, you know, steep environment down into the waterhole,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: bulky conditions, a large animal in there, certainly would have
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: taken a bit of effort. And yeah, certainly not the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: sort of thing we want to encourage. It's very dangerous
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: dealing with large crocodiles and it's not good to the
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: animal's welfare. It were still in the trap outside the water,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: get exposed to the heat and that's not good for
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: them at all. And as I dragged along the road,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I really can't understand the mentality of people who did that.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: It's quite sick, really, I mean, I know that crocodiles
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: are dangerous. I know that, you know that they're quite scary,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: but they're an animal. And to go through the process
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: of you know, dragging that trap out of the water
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and then from what I can see, it's been dragged
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: behind the vehicle and beheaded at some point. It's it's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: quite horrifying.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is. It is horrifying, and that obviously someone's
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: got some enjoyment out of it. The other thing is,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: once you interfere with the crocodile trap, I have to
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: take that back to base and parent and so it
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: can be reset. So that means danger that the public
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: is increased during that period. And I said, it's a
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: non spot for crocodile during the wet season and quite
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: large ones as well.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Peter, how did you guys become aware of what
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: had gone on with this crocodile?
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: So, I understand is a member of the public sort
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and contacted the or Parks and Wildlife and we let
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: the crocodile unit know. So we certainly didn't know that
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: it happened until we received a report from a member
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: of the public and then we went out there. We
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: certainly checked that trap quite frequently and certainly there's any
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: reports of crocodiles in there. So it is in a
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: fairly well known public area.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Was it quite a gruesome sort of scene then? For
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: you know, to uncover that crocodile that had had its head.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Cut off, it was a bit of they've seen the
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: photos that you know, they're certainly damaged to the scale
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: on the other side of the crocodile, and you know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: they've got some drag marks going on for quite quite
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: a large distance. And any animal that's just beheaded and
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: just left on the side of the road and it
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: is a grusman simply not acceptable.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know that you know that an offense
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: like this it does face a maximum penalty of up
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to eighty thousand dollars or five years in jail. Peter,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Are the police investigating or are Parks and Wildlife conducting
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: further investigations? Now?
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, saw us investigation. We certainly invite any member of
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: the public, you know something to contact wildlife operations on
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: a twenty four seven number.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: That's all right, I can read it out afterwards if
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you'd like.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So at the moment, we're just we've don't
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: all we can. We just need report from remember of
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: the public who do know something about what happened or
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: when it happened. The type of thing would be really
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: really helpful.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Peter, I really appreciate your time this morning.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: And yeah, just before I let you go, it was
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the trap damaged as well? Is that something that you're
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: going to need to fix.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there were some damage to the traps. I always
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: have to be reset and maintained, so certainly interfering with
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: them an upset for locking mechanisms or just the cave structure,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: so they need to take that back to debasing, just
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: get do repairs so can be reset or put another
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: one in there, and that just means public staatey is affected.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Peter Ross, the Chief Wildlife Officer, I really
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much for joining
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: us and telling us a bit more about this situation
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: that's unfolded, not
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: A problem with Thanks Katie, thank you