While stretching near Australia’s Murray River on a walk with his dogs, Mick Moloney suddenly noticed one of his Akitas—Hatchi—was missing.
“I looked in [towards the river] and behind these reeds I could just see this massive kangaroo…standing there with his arms actually in the water just staring at me,” Moloney told ABC Radio Melbourne via Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“After about 15 seconds, Hatchi came up and he was in a headlock with this kangaroo. Water was just gushing out of his mouth and he yelped quite badly.”
Moloney made a loud noise trying to scare the kangaroo away, but the animal didn’t move. Nor did it let go of his dog.
“I thought, all right, I got to get in there,” Moloney told ABC Radio.
He took his phone out and started recording “because no one is going to believe this.”
(Warning for salty language in video.)
Dude fights Kangaroo to help free his dog pic.twitter.com/Kdag80rsIY
— Crazy Clips (@crazyclipsonly) October 16, 2023
Moloney had “a bit of a tussle in the water” with the kangaroo, and dropped his phone in the process, retrieving it moments later.
Moloney told ABC Radio via News.com.au that he “basically, slapped him across the head, and he jumped me.
“The kangaroo basically looked like it was about to kick the legs out at me and I splashed some water in its face and tried to take off and it had another go at me as I was leaving.
“I got my dog back, that’s the main thing.”
Moloney admitted he had reservations about going at the kangaroo, considering its size.
“The muscles on this thing, I was like ‘this thing’s just got out of jail’ or something…It was jacked.”
Moloney, a mixed martial arts and Brazilian jujitsu teacher, posted the video on Facebook where one commenter wrote, “What are we doing now, roo-jitsu?”
Moloney indicated that was his last fight with a kangaroo “cause that thing was strong.” Then he added, “Let’s call it a draw.”
