A wallaby has been on the loose in Brewster, OH since at least last Thursday and all attempts to corral it have thus far been unsuccessful.
Mistakenly identified at first as a kangaroo, the wallaby has been spotted multiple times, with officials finalized convinced of its existence after being shown cell phone video of the animal hopping across a road.
“Then we realized, we really did have a wallaby running around,” police chief Nathan Taylor told reporters over the weekend.
Though no one has stepped forward to claim it, officials say it’s most likely an escaped pet, as area zoo and animal wildlife agencies didn’t report any wallabies missing from their possession.
As for the animal’s behavior, it seems to want no part of humans, Taylor said, and has kept its distance while bopping around at night.
Meanwhile, a team of experts is arriving this week to safely capture the wallaby, which the city is keeping tabs on via a drone.
“They have the means and ways to catch it humanely and relocate it into a safer environment,” Taylor told reporters while urging residents to be like the wallaby and keep their own distance. “The main thing we are telling people is don’t approach it. We don’t know how they would act if cornered.”
Additionally, because it unfortunately needed to be said, Taylor asked that no one hunt the animal.
This article appears in Aug 10-23, 2022.
