On the Street

N.C. Officers Wrangle Escaped Emu that Left Family in 'Shock'

May 3, 2022

A female emu startled a father and three children, and Lenoir police used a leash and fed the large bird by hand in order to lead her into a neighbor's fenced-in backyard.

By Jonathan Limehouse

Source The Charlotte Observer

Lenoir, NC, police officers wrangled an escaped emu that had surprised a father and three children Saturday.

A North Carolina father and his three children got quite a surprise Saturday when an emu decided to lay down beside them in Lenoir, police said.

A female emu named Kevin showed up on Eastwood Park Drive in Lenoir and left the family in “shock,” the city’s police department said in a Facebook post. The dad called Lenoir Police, which sent officers to try their hand at emu wrangling.

Officers placed a dog leash on Kevin and fed her by hand so she’d go into a neighbor’s fenced-in backyard, police said. The Caldwell County Animal Care Enforcement Division came to pick up and care for Kevin until her owners were found, police said.

Kevin lives in Moravian Falls, which is 30-plus miles northeast of Lenoir “as the emu walks,” police said. The Lenoir Police Department didn’t say who owned the emu.

The emu is the second-largest living bird by height, sitting behind its relative, the ostrich, according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

_______

Visit charlotteobserver.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.