http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...076B037E26A5A1C786257204000FA395?OpenDocument
Emu shot and killed by police in Granite City
By Leah Thorsen
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/11/2006
GRANITE CITY
Six times during the weekend, police here responded to the same call: a 100-pound emu running wild near Illinois Route 3.
The 5-foot-tall bird caused quite a ruckus, especially when it wandered into traffic on the busy highway, Police Chief Richard Miller said.
But each time, the rogue avian evaded capture - until Monday morning.
That's when officers shot and killed the emu near Old Rock Road, Miller said.
"We tried to do what we could for two days," he said.
Hitting an emu with a car could have caused a nasty crash, he said. And the claw-footed animals can get mean if they feel threatened, which is why officers decided there was no choice but to shoot the flightless bird that looks like an ostrich.
On Tuesday, police in Granite City weren't sure where the emu came from, although they heard rumors that someone near Interstate 270 might be raising the birds, Miller said.
No one had called police to report a missing emu.
The birds are raised on farms for their meat and other products.
The American Emu Association says emu meat tastes like lean beef and has more protein and fewer calories than most other red meats. No local breeders are listed on the association's website.
Emu oil also is used in cosmetics and lotions, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and emu hides can be used to make leather goods.
Meat from the fatally wounded Granite City emu is being cut into steaks and ground into burgers to be donated to a local food pantry, Miller said.
While sightings of uncorraled emus are rare in Illinois, they're not unheard of.
In June, police in Carbondale cornered an emu and shot it after getting several reports that it was running in a residential area and even pecking on the window of a home.
"It's unfortunate that people have these animals and are irresponsible," said Ledy VanKavage, a Collinsville-based attorney for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
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