Wallaby on the loose in Brewster area

Malcolm Hall, The Repository
·1 min read

BREWSTER – A wallaby has been hopping around the Brewster area this weekend, after first being spotted Thursday.

"We have confirmed there is one," village Police Chief Nathan Taylor said Sunday. "What I have heard from people who know a lot more about kangaroos than me, it is a wallaby. We have all seen it. He was out running around at about 3:30 (a.m. Sunday). He was on the north side of town in a wooded area."

The animal was first misidentified as a kangaroo. While the two animals are related, a wallaby is smaller than a kangaroo. It is native to Australia.

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Some people with expertise in rounding up stray animals were scheduled to come to Brewster to assist with capturing the wallaby.

"We heard about it last night (Saturday)," Sugar Creek Township Trustee Robert Wentling said. "As far I know it supposedly came from a property near Stanwood (Street SW). That would be in Tuscarawas Township."

Sugar Creek Township surrounds Brewster in the southwest corner of Stark County.

It's unclear who owns the wayward wallaby.

"We have had no one come forward at this time and say they lost their kangaroo (wallaby)," Taylor said Sunday afternoon. "The main thing we are telling people is don't approach it. We don't know how they would act if cornered. We have a team that is coming in and said they would help capture it. I contacted them. We want to do this as humanely as possible."

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Wallaby on the loose in Brewster