You know journalists are scraping the bottom of the barrel when this is news.
“…The Onkaparinga Hills man had been taking photos of local birds just before dark last Thursday, January 15, when he made the “horrible find” at a car park near Piggott Range Rd.
I saw it tied to the door handle and it was bound up quite severely with its legs crushed up against its body so it couldn’t move – I thought it was dead,” Mr Cook, 54, said.”
It sounds dramatic. It would be if it was person. Or a dog. Or even a cat. But no. This was the offensive item…
What a lucky coincidence that the victim (not the lizard, the car’s owner) was a photographer… We can all now share the pain he felt by witnessing the troubled lizard second hand.
The poor victim is obviously a master of overstatement, read the rest of his dramatic reaction below…
“I couldn’t get the tape off so I had to take it home and use scissors to free it.’’
He said the “tedious task’’ of freeing the lizard was made harder by its delicate feet and toes but he managed to release it back into the bush the next day, missing only a few scales from its back.
“It’s just disgusting, I worked for the RSPCA for 10 years as a rescue officer and I’ve been volunteering for the last six years at a farm that takes in local fauna so I’ve got a soft spot for all living animals,’’ he said.
“What a terrible way for the creature to die if I had not tended to it as soon as possible.’’
Mr Cook said the car parks around Onkaparinga Gorge were often the target of vandals and thieves, who dumped rubbish or stolen cars and did burnouts and wheelies.
“I’m not game to go up there anymore, it’s hard to go on bushwalks without the fear of something happening to your car,’’ Mr Cook said.”