Emu gets loose, runs around RI town

WEST GREENWICH, R.I. -- A big bird caused a panic last weekend. A large emu somehow broke free from its cage and went for a run through town.

Calls poured into 911 - some cried runaway chicken.

“I just came across an ostrich. I think it’s an ostrich, a very large, large bird,” said one 911 caller.

Some didn’t know what it was, only that it looked kind of scary.

“I’m afraid to take their dog out. Did anybody report it missing?” said another 911 caller.

It was an emu, a flightless bird native to Australia.

Jon Lonngren keeps - or tries to keep - four of them in a pen on his family’s farm in West Greenwich, R. I. But, sometime on Saturday one of the emus escaped through the electric fence.

“”Most likely he was spooked by something and just ran through the fence,” said Lonngren about why the Emu left the farm.

After two nights on the run - they can run up to 30 miles per hour - Lonngren and the town’s animal control officer finally caught the missing bird.

“I grabbed it by the neck and we got it into the animal control van and brought it home,” said Wendy Tavares, an animal control officer.

The owners think that the emu’s trick feathers kept it from getting shocked by the electric fence.

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