Thieves have reportedly wounded a female red kangaroo by stealing her five-month old joey from her pouch.

The baby roo was taken from a zoo in Wisconsin, USA last week, the zoo owner told local media on Sunday.

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“There’s just bad people in the world,” Special Memories Zoo owner Donna Wheeler told NBC News.

“It’s very, very upsetting,” Ms Wheeler said.

Four baby goats were also stolen, the owner said.

All five of the animals were reportedly housed in an insulated shed away from the main zoo structure, which was unlocked at the time of the theft.

The joey would most likely have died, said Ms Wheeler.

“It cannot live without its mother, it cannot live without special formula, it cannot live without heat,” she told ABC News in the US.

“You can’t just feed it anything.

“If a person took it who knew what they were doing it probably has a chance of living.

“But if somebody didn’t … I know we’ve got high school kids around, if someone did it as a joke, I’m sure by now it’s probably dead.”

The owner said the theft had left her feeling “absolutely horrible”.

“We do everything in our power to keep animals alive,” Ms Wheeler said.

“Right now my stomach is just turning to think somebody would do that.”