Loose Pet Kangaroo Keeps Police Hopping — Again — in Colorado 

This still image from video provided by the Durango Police Department shows Irwin the pet kangaroo is seen on the loose Monday, March 19, 2025, in Durango, Colo. (Durango Police Department via AP)
This still image from video provided by the Durango Police Department shows Irwin the pet kangaroo is seen on the loose Monday, March 19, 2025, in Durango, Colo. (Durango Police Department via AP)
TT
20

Loose Pet Kangaroo Keeps Police Hopping — Again — in Colorado 

This still image from video provided by the Durango Police Department shows Irwin the pet kangaroo is seen on the loose Monday, March 19, 2025, in Durango, Colo. (Durango Police Department via AP)
This still image from video provided by the Durango Police Department shows Irwin the pet kangaroo is seen on the loose Monday, March 19, 2025, in Durango, Colo. (Durango Police Department via AP)

Chasing a loose kangaroo is getting to be part of the job for police in a southwestern Colorado city.

Irwin, the pet kangaroo, wasn't difficult to nab when he got loose last fall in Durango. Still quite young at the time, he leaped into a bag similar to a mother kangaroo's pouch.

On Monday, Irwin got loose again. A police caller was worried he might get hit by a car.

This time, Irwin had grown too big for a bag.

“That technique wasn’t going to work. The officers were debating whether they needed to lasso it or what the plan was,” police Cmdr. Nick Stasi said Tuesday.

Officer Shane Garrison — described by Stasi as a “farm boy” with animal-handling experience — figured it out after following Irwin down an alley and into a backyard.

Irwin was still small enough, about as big as a medium-sized dog, for Garrison to corner him near a house, sneak up close and grab him. He carried the kangaroo to a police truck’s back seat and shut the door, as seen in a different officer's body camera video.

Kangaroos are among the unusual but legal animals to keep in Colorado.

Irwin was taken home to his family in downtown Durango, a tourism hub of 20,000 residents that is known for mountain tours on a narrow-gauge train.

Stasi wasn't sure how Irwin got out, but this 2-year-old pet will get only harder to catch.

By age 4 or 5, kangaroos can grow taller than most men and weigh 200 pounds (90 kilograms). They can hop much faster than a person runs and deliver a powerful kick.

“We want all pet owners to be responsible with their pet, how they keep it and keep it safe,” said Stasi.



Eel-eating Japan Opposes EU Call for More Protection

People on bicycles cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
People on bicycles cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
TT
20

Eel-eating Japan Opposes EU Call for More Protection

People on bicycles cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
People on bicycles cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)

Japan's agriculture minister said Friday the country would oppose any call by the European Union to add eels to an endangered species list that would limit trade in them.

Eel is eaten worldwide but is particularly popular in Japan, where it is called "unagi" and traditionally served grilled after being covered in a sticky-sweet sauce.

Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters that the country carefully manages stock levels of the Japanese eel in cooperation with neighboring China, Taiwan and South Korea.

"There is a sufficient population, and it faces no extinction risk due to international trade," AFP quoted him as saying.

Japanese media have reported that the EU could soon propose that all eel species be added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which limits trade of protected animals.

There are 19 species and subspecies of eel, many of them now threatened due to a range of factors including pollution and overfishing.

In 2014, the Japanese eel was listed as endangered, but not critically endangered, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which cited factors including habitat loss, overfishing, pollution and migration barriers.

Protecting the animal is complicated by their complex life cycle, which unfolds over a vast area, and the many unknowns about how they reproduce.