Even a tamed horse can be potentially dangerous. Almost any animal has that potential. But I don’t see why you are so against Kangaroos unless you just don’t like animals.
Any animal, when cornered, chased, or growled at is likely to react with fear and protectiveness of their safety, and therefore likely to attack…as are many dogs themselves…you are correct.
Regarding vehicle accidents, when I was in the U.S the road signs warned of crossing deer and in places, bears…it is difficult for any native or wild animals to cope with fast moving, and often unexpected traffic, especially if the animal travels fast itself.
Certainly the animals roamed free long before the relative recent introduction of motor vehicles. When travelling, we usually keep a lookout for fast-moving kangaroos especially at dusk, but in hundreds of thousands of miles along the north to south east coast of Australia have never hit a kangaroo or emu or any native animal, nor had a near miss.
Kangaroos routinely gave nightly visits for years to my youngest son’s property, and the three Australian cattle dogs, Kelpies, never received any injury of any kind. You’d hear the kangaroos hop past the house at night.
The only inconvenience ever suffered by us or the dogs was that though 2 of the Keplies were pureblood dogs, one was a Kelpie cross, and after a bath, her eau de cologne was a roll in neat pebbles of kangaroo droppings by the dam where the roos came for their water. She’d return very proudly to the house looking somewhat green of coat.
The only time any came to grief was when all three dogs were barking at a koala who had been foolish enough to cross the paddock with three dogs nearby. Lizzie, the Kelpie cross, who liked cats as pets and when young, tried to round up flies, tried to round up the koala, who then chased her and gave her a little scratch on the nose…to our amusement I fear to say.
P.S. *Lily, I’m really sorry about your dogs. I know how much my sons’ dogs mean to them, and their dogs always welcome our visits with joy, and I can only imagine how distressing to have one of your dogs killed, and another badly injured. It certainly would colour your image of the culprits. Dogs give a lot to their owners, and do win a place in the heart.
That beautiful pictured classic black and tan Kelpie of my son’s is now minus one back leg, thanks to a road accident as she sought the current location of her master. We all felt her injury keenly…so I can understand a little of the distress you have endured.*
All that aside, yes the Kangaroos treatment and protection of embryonic offspring do make her a good symbol for pro-life.
