Man ticketed for possessing wallaby on Coney Island’s boardwalk

NEW YORK — Coney Island’s famous boardwalk has seen its share of odd sights since it opened in 1923. But a wallaby with a resident was probably a new experience for beachgoers at the New York City beach.

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According to the New York City Police Department, officers received reports of an individual strolling the boardwalk with the marsupial on Friday night.

While it is legal to own a wallaby in New York City as a pet, authorities frown upon displaying the animal in a public place. The New York State Senate passed a bill in May 2023 that made owning an “indigenous, non-domesticated animals native to the country in which they live” -- like a wallaby -- legal.

Police confiscated the animal and sent it to the Animal Care Center of New York, WPIX-TV reported.

Wallabies are small, pouched marsupials that belong to a group of animals found in Australia and New Guinea, according to the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment website.

The wallaby’s owner was issued a summons for “possession of a wild marsupial,” police wrote in a tweet.