Wildlife rehabilitator pleading with authorities to keep his best mate

A man who has hand-raised a young kangaroo since it was a joey says he is “willing to do whatever it takes” to keep the animal on his property.

Brett Marthick with Roger the eastern grey kangaroo. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

A TASMANIAN wildlife rehabilitator is in a battle with authorities as he tries to keep a young kangaroo called Roger on his property to run with his “mob” – a menagerie of animals including a husky and a fallow deer.

When Brett Marthick meets you at his rural property at Smithton, he has a constant companion by his side.

But unlike most homeowners, that companion is not a dog or a cat.

Mr Marthick’s furry friend is a young eastern grey kangaroo who in turn has a fallow deer called Hope as his best mate.

Mr Marthick loves Roger and has raised him since a joey. He is now 15 months old and still being hand-fed four bottles of milk a day. The young roo also sleeps inside the house.

But soon, Roger could be relocated under protest to a wildlife park more than 100km away.

Mr Marthick’s permit to keep the young kangaroo expires in two weeks and he is pleading with authorities for Roger to stay where he has grown up.

“He will need to be sedated to be moved and will be totally lost when he comes to,” Mr Marthick said.

“Roger is just like a kid to me and I’ve spoiled him rotten. We are very attached.

“He is like my shadow, he frets without me and will not let anyone else feed him.”

Roger the eastern grey kangaroo and fallow deer Hope. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

Mr Marthick is battling a range of serious health conditions and says looking after Roger gives him a reason to get up of a morning.

In an email, Mr Marthick was told Roger was still young enough to be rehabilitated and the “best outcome” for him would be to be relocated and integrated with a mob.

Mr Marthick acknowledges that eastern grey kangaroos are a mob animal.

“Roger might not have any other kangaroos to mob with here but he has my other animals that are his friends. We are his mob and I am willing to do whatever it takes to keep him,” he said.

“I have heard that early next year there will be a cull of 50,000 eastern grey kangaroos in Tasmania through crop protection permits. What is the big deal about me having one here happy and at home on my five acres?”

A Parks and Wildlife department spokesman said rehabilitation permits were issued to allow carers to possess injured and orphaned wildlife to rehabilitate them so they can be released back to the wild.