Video of tourists lighting Australian quokka on fire leads to court case

Follow Us

Australia's favourite random animal, the quokka, has been at the centre of a horrific court case.

On Friday, two French tourists were fined $4,000 for lighting one of the endangered marsupials on fire on Rottness Island, Western Australia, according to ABC News.

See also: If you haven't taken a selfie with a quokka, you haven't lived

A video of the incident shows one man spraying an aerosol can and lighting it with a lighter, to burn the quokka. The other man filmed it and both men can be heard laughing in the background.

Thibaud Valette, 24, and Jean Batrikian, 18, were charged with animal cruelty over the April 3 incident. The pair could have been fined up to $50,000 and sentenced to five years in jail for the crime. Magistrate Elizabeth Langdon told Fremantle Magistrates Court she hoped the fines would act as a deterrent Read more...

More about Australia, Us World, and Animal Cruelty