An ex-cop and marshal arts enthusiast has gone viral after he filmed himself rushing into an outback river to save his dog from being "drowned' by a wild kangaroo. The man punched an allegedly 7-foot-tall kangaroo that was trying to drown his dog, kicking off a wild interspecies brawl.
In the video titled "Martial Arts are for Everyone, Even Kangaroos," the kangaroo is seen holding the dog just above the water. A video of this kangaroo and dog fighting, known as the "roo-tenanny," has already garnered over 2.5 million views on TikTok before it was removed for unknown reasons. However, a repost of the video is gaining traction on Reddit.
Man Vs the Wild
In the video, the man is seen rushing to rescue the visibly distressed pet. He can be heard cursing the kangaroo, saying, "I'm going to punch your f***ing head in. Let my dog go." Moments later, the video captures the kangaroo lunging at the man, clearly showing its arm and claws.
However, the video abruptly ends, transitioning to a black screen as it hits the water.
A muffled sound of a struggle is audible before the video resumes, revealing the kangaroo standing upright in the river facing the man, with the dog now released.
The man is seen splashing water at the kangaroo, and he then heads back to shore while laughing and cursing at the unmoved animal.
"I saw a kangaroo ... with his arms in the water, basically just staring at me," Mick Moloney told 7 News of the roo-diculous encounter, which occurred Sunday in the Murray River in Mildura, Victoria.
The ex-police officer, known to have Brazilian jiu-jitsu training, was apparently walking by the river when he realized that one of his dogs named Hutchy had gone missing.
He noticed that his other dogs were notably subdued and refrained from entering the river, a contrast to their usual playful behavior of frolicking in the water.
All of a sudden, "Hutchy came up gasping for air, water spilling out of his mouth and screaming his head off," the ex-cop recounted.
"I was like, 'are you kidding me?'" exclaimed Moloney, who sprang into action to rescue him from his deadly interspecies baptism.
Gone Viral
Commentators promptly showed support for the man's courageous action, with one user mentioning they would do the same and "fight a kangaroo" to protect their dog. Users from other countries were surprised by the encounter with what is widely recognized as an emblem of Australian culture and wildlife.
"So do kangaroo eat dogs or why is he trying to choke it," one person asked.
She added: "I thought the kangaroo drowned bro in front of his dog."
"Keep your dog under control and this whole situation could have been avoided," declared one critic. "The kangaroo was defending itself, and rightly so, from two yobbos."
"That'll teach him. Don't let your dogs chase wildlife," criticized another. "He's lucky it didn't push the dog under & stand on it."
They added, "I've seen a 6ft roo take on 2 pig hunting dogs, it would've killed them both had the owner not swam out to it. It stood on one & dunked the other up & down like a wild washing machine."
However, this isn't the first time where a person risked himself to rescue their dog from a kangaroo confrontation.
In a widely popular video from 2016, an Australian dog owner was seen delivering a punch to a kangaroo's face after the marsupial placed his dog in a headlock.
