A regular dog walk turned into a scary moment for one Australian dog guardian when he had to confront an intimidating kangaroo that had gotten a hold of his dog. Mick Moloney was on a walk with his three Akitas by the Murray River in Victoria when he noticed one of them was missing.
“Morning walk with the pack, got close to the river and Hatchi was missing, next minute he comes up gargling, getting drowned by this monster,” Mick captioned in the video he posted of the incident. The large kangaroo was holding onto Hatchi in the water and was looking right at Moloney.
“I saw a kangaroo…with his arms in the water, basically just staring at me,” he told 7 News after the encounter.
Moloney is a former police officer and mixed martial artist instructor but even he was intimidated by the kangaroo. “The muscles on this thing, I was like ‘this thing’s just got out of jail’ or something…It was jacked,” he told ABC Radio.
But Moloney knew he had to rescue Hatchi so he waded out into the river and demanded that the kangaroo let go of his dog.
The kangaroo didn’t let go of Hatchi so Moloney smacked the marsupial, which startled the animal. But the kangaroo swiped back at Moloney and knocked his phone out of his hand.
A tussle can be heard from the submerged camera and moments later the camera is pulled out of the water by Moloney who is backing away from the angry kangaroo. Thankfully, Hatchi got free and swam to shore.
Moloney said he filmed the encounter because he didn’t think anyone would believe him. The video has now gone viral across the globe.
Hatchi and the kangaroo were unharmed. Moloney suffered some cuts on his hand when the kangaroo knocked his phone away. He also said, “My forearm was killing me for most of the day. It was a bit of a punch on.”
Moloney told media outlets that he doesn’t intend to stop walking by the river as it’s his dogs’ favorite trail but we’re guessing that both he and his dogs will be more cautious and on the lookout for kangaroos from now on.
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