Kangaroo cruelty at party investigated

The general manager of a hotel at which a baby kangaroo was reportedly released onto a dance floor has today expressed his outrage over the incident.

Gardaí are investigating the incident which took place during a birthday party held at the Clarion Hotel in Liffey Valley on Saturday.

According to reports, the animal was let into the packed function room while a DJ played the theme tune to the television programme Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

The Clarion's general manager, Garret Marrinan, confirmed the incident this morning and said the hotel had passed on CCTV footage to the gardaí.

"We had a 30th birthday here in the hotel with between 150 and 200 guests and at about 11pm at night the duty manager noticed a group of people hovering on the dance floor. He went to investigate and noticed some kind of a strange animal coming out of a box and shortly after going back into it," said Mr Marrinan.

"He wasn't sure what it was exactly but, because we have a no pets policy in the hotel, [he] called security who forced the people who brought the box in to take it out of the hotel," he added.

Mr Marrinan said he did not know the animal was a kangaroo until contacted by gardaí today. He added the hotel was "offering every assistance possible" to officers.

"We're horrified by this. We would do two or three parties a week, and up to now they've all been normal events. Absolutely nothing like this has happened before, either here or at other Clarion hotels, and this is something we don't want to be associated with.

"We're not very happy about this. We don’t condone it and we don’t think it is acceptable at all,” he added.

The Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) has appealed for more information on the incident.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, DSPCA operations manager Orla Aungier said the society had received a number of calls about the incident, including from some individuals who had attended the party.

She said some callers had heard the animal had died following the party but she said the society was unable to confirm it.

"We know that the animal was videoed, and you can imagine the fear and stress it must have felt. It is completely unacceptable that an animal would be used in this way," she said.

Ms Aungier said the DSPCA had passed on information it had received to gardaí. She added it was unclear if the animal was a kangaroo or another type of marsupial such as a wallaby.

The society said the incident showed the necessity for updated animal welfare legislation and the appropriate registration of the ownership of exotic animals.

"It is absolutely scandalous that in this day and age we do not have an enforced register of exotic animals," said Ms Aungier.

“This bizarre and depraved series of events demonstrates that there are people in our society who need to be policed. We cannot continue to have exotic animals bought and sold without any form of license. Such animals should be registered and micro-chipped to prevent such extreme cases of animal cruelty in the future,” she added.