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Speaker 1: The Parks and Wildlife are calling for information from the

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Speaker 1: public following on from a crocodile that's been removed from

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Speaker 1: a trap, killed and beheaded. Now joining me on the

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Speaker 1: line to tell us more about exactly what's going on

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Speaker 1: is the Chief Wildlife Officer, Peter Ross. Good morning, Peter.

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Speaker 2: Hi Katie, Peter.

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Speaker 1: What has happened with this crocodile.

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Speaker 2: Well, what we think has happened is that, well, first

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Speaker 2: the trap was dragged out of the water hole, not

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Speaker 2: knowing he did that sequence of events. The animal was

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Speaker 2: then dragged along Gunpoint Road for a few hundred meters,

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Speaker 2: shot and not have been shot before it was dragged

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Speaker 2: along the road hopefully that happened, and then beheaded and

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Speaker 2: just left on the side of the road. And that

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Speaker 2: was reported to us, I think yesterday. So we've responded

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Speaker 2: and yeah that's what we found.

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Speaker 1: My goodness. So where exactly did this happen? I know

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Speaker 1: you mentioned Gunpoint Road, but where had that trap been

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Speaker 1: set up?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a large calvert near the Shoulder Conservation is

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Speaker 2: the It's a popular area where people take their dogs,

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Speaker 2: some people swim there and it's a known area for crocodiles.

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Speaker 2: During the wet season in January. We did pull one

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Speaker 2: out well over three meters, so there's a dangerous area.

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Speaker 1: So, Peter, I'm assuming it's taken quite a bit of

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Speaker 1: effort to pull that trap out, to drag it out,

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Speaker 1: and then to you know, to do what they have done.

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Speaker 2: Well, definitely, you know, steep environment down into the waterhole,

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Speaker 2: bulky conditions, a large animal in there, certainly would have

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Speaker 2: taken a bit of effort. And yeah, certainly not the

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Speaker 2: sort of thing we want to encourage. It's very dangerous

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Speaker 2: dealing with large crocodiles and it's not good to the

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Speaker 2: animal's welfare. It were still in the trap outside the water,

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Speaker 2: get exposed to the heat and that's not good for

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Speaker 2: them at all. And as I dragged along the road,

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Speaker 2: I really can't understand the mentality of people who did that.

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Speaker 1: It's quite sick, really, I mean, I know that crocodiles

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Speaker 1: are dangerous. I know that, you know that they're quite scary,

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Speaker 1: but they're an animal. And to go through the process

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Speaker 1: of you know, dragging that trap out of the water

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Speaker 1: and then from what I can see, it's been dragged

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Speaker 1: behind the vehicle and beheaded at some point. It's it's

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Speaker 1: quite horrifying.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it is. It is horrifying, and that obviously someone's

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Speaker 2: got some enjoyment out of it. The other thing is,

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Speaker 2: once you interfere with the crocodile trap, I have to

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Speaker 2: take that back to base and parent and so it

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Speaker 2: can be reset. So that means danger that the public

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Speaker 2: is increased during that period. And I said, it's a

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Speaker 2: non spot for crocodile during the wet season and quite

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Speaker 2: large ones as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Peter, how did you guys become aware of what

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Speaker 1: had gone on with this crocodile?

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Speaker 2: So, I understand is a member of the public sort

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Speaker 2: and contacted the or Parks and Wildlife and we let

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Speaker 2: the crocodile unit know. So we certainly didn't know that

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Speaker 2: it happened until we received a report from a member

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Speaker 2: of the public and then we went out there. We

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Speaker 2: certainly checked that trap quite frequently and certainly there's any

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Speaker 2: reports of crocodiles in there. So it is in a

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Speaker 2: fairly well known public area.

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Speaker 1: Was it quite a gruesome sort of scene then? For

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Speaker 1: you know, to uncover that crocodile that had had its head.

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Speaker 2: Cut off, it was a bit of they've seen the

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Speaker 2: photos that you know, they're certainly damaged to the scale

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Speaker 2: on the other side of the crocodile, and you know,

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Speaker 2: they've got some drag marks going on for quite quite

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Speaker 2: a large distance. And any animal that's just beheaded and

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Speaker 2: just left on the side of the road and it

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Speaker 2: is a grusman simply not acceptable.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know that you know that an offense

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Speaker 1: like this it does face a maximum penalty of up

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Speaker 1: to eighty thousand dollars or five years in jail. Peter,

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Speaker 1: Are the police investigating or are Parks and Wildlife conducting

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Speaker 1: further investigations? Now?

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Speaker 2: Oh, saw us investigation. We certainly invite any member of

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Speaker 2: the public, you know something to contact wildlife operations on

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Speaker 2: a twenty four seven number.

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Speaker 1: That's all right, I can read it out afterwards if

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Speaker 1: you'd like.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So at the moment, we're just we've don't

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Speaker 2: all we can. We just need report from remember of

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Speaker 2: the public who do know something about what happened or

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Speaker 2: when it happened. The type of thing would be really

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Speaker 2: really helpful.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Peter, I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, just before I let you go, it was

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Speaker 1: the trap damaged as well? Is that something that you're

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Speaker 1: going to need to fix.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there were some damage to the traps. I always

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Speaker 2: have to be reset and maintained, so certainly interfering with

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Speaker 2: them an upset for locking mechanisms or just the cave structure,

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Speaker 2: so they need to take that back to debasing, just

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Speaker 2: get do repairs so can be reset or put another

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Speaker 2: one in there, and that just means public staatey is affected.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Peter Ross, the Chief Wildlife Officer, I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much for joining

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Speaker 1: us and telling us a bit more about this situation

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Speaker 1: that's unfolded, not

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Speaker 2: A problem with Thanks Katie, thank you