Three young emus have been killed in Victoria's Gippsland region, with rescuers adamant they were mown down deliberately.
Wildlife carers say the baby emus were hit on Monday by a vehicle at Golden Beach, a small town situated along Ninety Mile Beach and about 40km west of Sale.
"It had to be a four-wheel drive with a bull bar," Sue Kirwan of Help for Wildlife told AAP on Wednesday.
"They are a heavy-bodied bird. A normal car would have had a fair bit of damage done to it, cleaning up three of the poor things."
When carer Marnie arrived to render assistance, two were lying dead on the road and the other needed to be put down as it had suffered a broken leg.
"To leave one of them there suffering in that heat and not even call anyone is awful," Ms Kirwan said.
"If they can't be saved, at least they don't suffer."
Ms Kirwan said the emus were killed on Cooper Street and were part of a family of six that included four babies and their parents.
After being notified by locals, Marnie did a 300km round trip to reach the site and was "floored" by the confronting scene.
"It was horrible. She's still upset," Ms Kirwan said.
"It's probably the part of what we do that people don't really get to see. We don't often post it (online) as there are some really horrible outcomes of what we attend.
"But she and I both felt that they had been deliberately run down."
Help for Wildlife has not reported the incident to police as there are no witnesses.
"It's probably a dead-end," Ms Kirwan said.
She is urging the person responsible to come forward.
"At least if they say 'it was an accident, we weren't sure what to do', that would give us some closure," Ms Kirwan said.
"But there are some assholes around ... that do this sort of thing. It just makes you wonder what sort of humans they are."
Australian Associated Press
