7/20/2002: Emu roundup
 

http://cellar.org/2002/emu-roundup.jpg

Failsafe, old friend of mine who's been a Cellarite on and off for years, sends along this shot of an emu being loaded into a police vehicle. These big-ass birds are found in Australia and New Zealand, but this one is a refugee of a house in the SF area.

According to the SF Gate story, which has an URL just too long to paste here, the officers couldn't figure out the best way to catch the bird. These emus are not quite as fragile as they look. They're 150 pounds of muscle and can run 40 mph. The police decided to try roping the thing like a steer, but it took off and dragged them. It took 15 minutes to catch the bird, during which its legs kicked and emptied one of the officers' cans of pepper spray.

Failsafe says the funny thing about this shot is "the guilty look on the perpetrator's face." It's like "Damn, coppers, you got me."

Those things were very popular here in Texas (and still are with some people). Emu ranchers were sold on the idea that the meat and eggs sell for an insane price, but were not told that finding buyers is a complete bitch, and that you spend nearly 80% of would-be profit on feed. They can't just graze like cattle.
There were a few cases around here of people dumping them. In actuality, they were just opening the fence, and letting them run free. Unfortunately, emus can be dangerous when provoked. Since their legs are purely muscle, and they have the large nails/claws, they have the potential to shred you in half with one kick.
I wonder why these guys didn't just use a tranquilizer. "Net it, shoot it, get on with your life."©

If you know someone who wants to unload emu meat...send it my way.

I tried it once and found it to be delicious. It's best as a Filet but a roast or loin is also good.

Try it once for yourself and see if I'm not right. It's very low fat and has high protein content.
One of these days I'll try it ground into patties or as a sausage.

There's a butcher specialising in game meats in the Italian Market...I forget his name. I get mine there when I'm in town. He also carries ostrich which is damn near the same thing but a bit stronger taste-wise.

Brian

Re: 7/20/2002: Emu roundup
 

Hast thou not heard of
http://www.makeashorterlink.com ?

Of course ...
 

... shorter still is http://www.shorturl.com .

Those guys also offer funurl.com which is probly sposed to be read "fun url dot com", but can also be read "funeral dot com".

Bah
 

If I'd been on top of it, i could have been

Bah
 

If I'd been on top of it, i could have been quicker than Bitman and posted tinyurl.com

Which would have had the hopefully amusing subject of "Tinier URL!"

However, Bitman had to go forth with his all too short funurl.com, which is one character shorter than my tinyurl, which makes it not so tiny any more. So this entire post is invalid because it is no longer necessary. I wonder if I should post it?

Re: Bah
 

You could have been a contender, you could have been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what you are, let's face it Charlie.

Whaaaaaaa!

Re: Re: Bah
 

Huh, what did I say?

xlock is your frien
 

Uh-oh. Looks like Undertoad walked away from his computer without logging out. ;->

Hee! The line I posted is in fact a paraphrase of a Brando line in "On the Waterfront". Way too obscure.