Australians Fed Up with their Prime Minister; Thousands of Animals Died in the Bushfires.
HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. The bush fires in Australia have been devastating for wildlife. Millions of animals there have been killed and those who have managed to escape are in dire need of medical help.</s>ALLEN: The numbers are mind-boggling.</s>HOWELL: Yes.</s>ALLEN: Millions, that's leaving vets with a grand choice of which animals to save. CNN's Anna Coren has our story from Victoria.</s>ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A mob of eastern gray kangaroos on the gulf coast in Mallacoota, Victoria has always been part of the scenery. But these animals aren't just here for a peek. Their habitat was completely obliterated during the bush fires and the fairways provide the only grass remaining. A young joey moves slowly. It caught the attention of vets Chris Barton and Elaine Ong. This husband and wife team have flown from Melbourne to this coastal town surrounded by national park that remains cut off by the fires. As volunteers that brought desperately needed medical supplies and bags of pellets.</s>CHRIS BARTON, VETERINARIAN, VETS FOR COMPASSION: This little one is not walking well or hopping well. And we are going to dart him and assess what he is going to be like.</s>COREN: They fire a tranquilizer dart and within minutes it takes effect. Inspecting her pause and hind feet, their worst fears are realized.</s>BARTON: See this.</s>ELAINE ONG, VETERINARIAN, VETS FOR COMPASSION: His back feet are terribly burned. This is a third-degree burn.</s>BARTON: And this is all cooked up in heat.</s>ONG: And this is cooked meat.</s>COREN: The decision has been made to euthanize. There is no other alternative. She is among hundreds of kangaroos in more than a dozen koalas that had to be put out of their misery.</s>BARTON: I've been a vet for over 40 years and I still don't get used to it. It is wholesale slaughters. It is awful. It still brings tears to my eyes.</s>COREN: As you can see, so much pristine bushland here in Mallacoota has been wiped out by the bush fires. And the concern is for the wildlife that has survived and injured the loss of habitat could mean starvation in the coming weeks.</s>ONG: In a way maybe the ones that died quickly were lucky, the survivors may not be so lucky.</s>COREN: Due to the overwhelming number of injured animals that have found and brought to the makeshift clinic in town, some have been transferred to Melbourne for treatment while others are recovering in local shelters.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to change this every two days. But she is one of the lucky ones.</s>COREN: As is Wilbur, the koala.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hillside sanctuary said he is good to go. This happy little fellow too, so.</s>COREN: He was rescued during the fires but now it was time to send him back to the bush.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: H, mate, it's time to go home. He has been in the cage for I think five days now so we are letting him have a little bit of a walk and find his legs before we send him up a tree.</s>COREN: Nearby, a healthy mother and baby is spotted in a stringing bark gum tree.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the baby.</s>COREN: A hopeful sign that some of Mallacoota's fauna were spared and can help rebuild this natural and incredibly fragile ecosystem. Anna Coren, CNN, Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia.</s>ALLEN: Millions of animals have been lost. Lives have been lost. People have lost their homes and people in Australia are angry. Authorities are telling 220,000 people in the state of Victoria to get to a safe location as more hot and dry winds are feeding the fires that have claimed 27 lives.</s>HOWELL: Now thousands of people are rallying across the country. Let's bring in our own Will Ripley. Will is live from a rally in Sydney. And, Will, first of all, so many people have come together angry at the prime minister. Tell us about what you are seeing.</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the protesters now move towards from the location we check in with you from earlier town hall. They are now walking through the streets of Sydney. So many people at one point there was a log jam, the streets were completely jacked up. So, while we don't have official numbers here, I would say visually, it's easily in about as possibly tens of thousands. And when you factor in the nine Australians cities that are holding similar large scale protests including Melbourne and Canberra, even the mining town of (Inaudible) people are out protesting right now saying that Australia should be at the forefront of change, that Australia should, you know, release itself on what they call an addiction to fossil fuels with coal being vital to this country's economy. Protesters out here saying that there will no economy with the dead planet. And when you have a nation with, you know, literally hundreds of fires that has been burning, an unprecedented bush fires in Eden, you have also an unprecedented drought, you have millions and millions of animals who have died which Anna Coren just spoke about on her report. It's really coming to ahead here in terms of the public anger and the demand of their government to change and try to make changes before the climate crisis becomes even worse than it already is here.</s>ALLEN: Is it a thought, Will, that the prime minister will listen and do anything?</s>RIPLEY: Well, that's the big question. You know, Scott Morrison has been trying to, you know, basically repair the damage obviously from his batch response that he fires. Remember he was on vacation in Hawaii when all of this really intensified and got a lot of scrutiny for that. He has been heckled when he has been out on the ground. People of (Inaudible) they refused to shake his hand. They say he is not giving enough resources to the firefighters and the first responders who were out there trying to, you know, trying to put these fires out and save people who have lost their homes. You know, more than two dozen people have been killed and the danger is not over. The bush fires are expected to continue burning and perhaps even intensify in the coming days.</s>HOWELL: Seeing their people earlier angry at Sco Mo, the prime minister there. Will Ripley reporting on the protest there.</s>ALLEN: And for more on how you can help the victims of Australia's bushfire, as you can visit CNN.com/impact. Thank you for watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Natalie Allen.</s>HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. The news continues after the break.