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Police: 'We did what we thought was appropriate' with stray emu

By Andrea Hahn, The Southern

Saturday, June 17, 2006 6:04 AM CDT

CARBONDALE - The Carbondale Police Department owns a tranquilizer gun.

But the officers aren't expert emu handlers, said Sgt. Don Priddy.

"We don't have any experienced emu handlers on the staff," he said.

He noted, though, that Animal Control Officer Cindy Nelson does keep up to date on exotic animal handling practices. She was not available to handle Wednesday's emu complaint. However, the advice she gave the officers concurred with advice given by other area animal experts - emus can be dangerous and capturing or subduing them can be difficult.

Priddy said every veterinarian and area animal control expert they contacted told them that, in the absence of an owner, the bird would almost surely have to be destroyed.

"We called people," Priddy said. "It's not like we went out there in two minutes and shot it. The message we got from everybody is - don't mess with it."

Priddy noted the police department has received feedback from the community about its lethal response to Wednesdays' emu complaint. Comments to The Southern Illinoisan have been numerous. Some have applauded the police response to an unusual situation. Plenty have decried the use of violence. Most comments indicate a tranquilizer gun would have been a better alternative.

"The (tranquilizer) dart wouldn't penetrate, in the first place," Priddy said, when asked to explain why the department didn't use the tranquilizing option.

Nelson told officers the only effective site for an emu to be hit with a tranquilizer is the leg - and that is recommended for situations when the bird has already been restrained. Hitting a larger target - such as the breast - would be ineffective because of the bird's thick and resilient feathers.

"Second, you don't know what's going to happen when you tranquilize an animal," Priddy said, adding that dogs are rarely tranquilized for the same reason. "If it's in an excited state - and I'm sure the emu was - it might become more excited. It can make them more aggressive, at least at first."

In addition, Priddy said, the police department does not keep emu tranquilizer on hand. Probably, he said, the type they do have wouldn't have been the right kind.

Priddy said attempting to shoot the bird in the head was not an option. The potential for missing was too high.

"If we would have been out in the county and no one was around, we might have had some other options," he said. "In a residential area, you can't just let it run around."

Paul "Doc" DuBois, a Cobden resident, said he has an emu among the several exotic pets he keeps. When his emu escaped, he said, he was able to assist the Cobden police in its capture.

"You have to approach them slowly," he said. "It takes time."

He suggested corralling the bird with wire screens until it could be enclosed might have been an option. In Cobden, police were able to lasso the bird. It went quietly with DuBois after it was subdued.

Priddy said police contacted area veterinarians in part because they were looking for a possible owner to claim the bird or to help in its capture. He said police still don't know who owned the bird or from where it came.

"What it comes down to is that we can't do everything you see on TV," he said. "We did what we thought was appropriate, and what we still think was appropriate."

andrea.hahn@thesouthern.com

(618) 529-5454 ext. 5076