Man charged with animal cruelty over emu hit and run rampage

Man charged with animal cruelty over emu hit and run rampage

A man who allegedly used his 4WD to mow down a mob of emus in Victoria's north-west has been charged with several animal cruelty offences.

A video shared on social media this week showed the man appearing to deliberately run over more than a dozen emus as he drove his vehicle along Pellaring Road, Cowangie.

The man in the video is laughing as he ploughs the group of animals down.

"F**king emus," the man can be heard yelling.

About 20 seconds later, the video shows the car approaching a mob of emus which are running away from the vehicle.

The car runs over about half a dozen of them, with the driver counting along and laughing.

"This is f**king great," he said.

"Got that one too, and that one."

Before the video ends the camera turns around to show a young man with a moustache, wearing a cap and sunglasses, who continues to laugh and scream "yes" at the camera before the video ends.

Man in sunglasses and hat in a 4WD

The 41-second video, which appears to be filmed by the driver, shows a 4WD with P-plates driving 120kph down a dirt road.

Victoria Police say it was filmed earlier this month.

The video has been shared thousands of times since being posted on Facebook late on Wednesday night.

Police say a 20-year-old Cowangie man has been charged with aggravated cruelty to an animal, cruelty to an animal, torment to an animal and destruction of protected wildlife.

He has also been charged with using his mobile phone while driving, as well as speeding.

The man will face the Ouyen Court in November.

Social media outrage

Two men who resemble the driver from the video have been inundated with abuse on social media.

One of the men, Joshua McConnell, posted on Facebook that he is not the man seen in the video.

"Peace of s**t this bloke!" Mr McConnell wrote.

"Any real man would have handed [themselves] in instead of letting people like myself get the blame and left traumatised after the [hundreds] of death and rape threats that were sent to me."