Wisconsin Town Vows to Drive Out Woman's 'Therapy' Pet Kangaroo

Diana Moyer has five kangaroos. Her favorite, Jimmy, is a brain-damaged one-year-old with a deformed tail. Moyer bought him at an exotic animals auction because she knew he just needed some love and now he goes everywhere with her (in a diaper and car seat). The town of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, however, wants to make that stop as quickly as possible.

The Daily Beast reports that Moyer views her kangaroos (as well as a disabled goat and other animals she helps take care of at her ex-husband’s farm) as a therapy animal and has a note from her doctor saying as much. The problem, however, is that the state of Wisconsin doesn’t recognize kangaroos or goats as therapy animals. In fact, according to the lawyer that’s helping the government of Beaver Dam to turn the hamlet into a “no kangaroo” zone there’s no such thing as a therapy animal in the state and the only acceptable service animals (as per ADA regulations) are dogs and mini horses. That’s why Moyer soon won’t be able to take Jimmy, who loves being out and about, to the local McDonald’s on a regular basis.Moyer believes she’s being picked on.

While you wouldn’t think of a kangaroo as a service animal, Moyer says that Jimmy (along with her other “roos,” goats, and single llama) helps her and her husband fight depression and anxiety. She also says that her animals help keep her mind off “having cancer.”

According to Moyer, Kangaroos are “loving and faithful” creatures who like watching TV with her and going to the mall. She’s planning on getting more and feels that the city of Beaver Dam is just picking on her with their attempt to ban Jimmy and his friends from hopping into town. But she’s going to fight the ban for as long as she can, even if it means not being able to go into businesses anymore.

Aside from Jimmy the ‘roo whose saved her emotional health, Moyer says that a goat named Edward saved her when she had a medical emergency.

The kangaroos aren’t her only guardian animals. Edward the goat saved her life one day when she had a staph infection in her leg. It was bleeding, and the goat broke down her door and alerted her mother, who was nearby, Moyer said.

And Moyer isn’t the first person to use a kangaroo as a therapy animal. A woman in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, recently fought the law (and won) in order to keep her disabled kangaroo in her home despite city laws.

If you disagree with Moyer, she says it’s probably because you haven’t yet experienced a kangaroo in your own life, but that you’ll change your mind once you spend some time with one, bottle-feeding it around the clock and spending quality time together.

“You just have to experience them before you can really appreciate them,” Moyer said. “That’s all I can say about it.”