WEST MILFORD

'Like Houdini': Vance the emu is home in West Milford after being on the loose for a week

Matt Fagan
NorthJersey.com

Missing since last Monday, Vance the emu is back at his West Milford home.

His return on Sunday turned out to be as mysterious as his disappearance

His owner, Sandy Roberto Cordasco, has no idea how he broke free of his pen or how he broke into a horse's paddock on her 13-acre property.   

"He really is like Houdini," she said. "This guy is really living, doing his best emu thing."

Cordasco said she was at Greenwood Lake around 6 p.m. Sunday when a neighbor messaged her that Vance had been seen in the Lenape Trail area near her farm. 

Cordasco said her friend Brandi Weaver, who also got a message, went to investigate and found that Vance had somehow broken into the horse corral. By 7 p.m., a team of friends and neighbors gathered to capture Vance and return him to his pen.

Vance the emu is back in his pen in West Milford. He escaped and was on the loose for about a week.

Cordasco said she's never had to catch a fleeing emu, so it was "learn as you go."

It turns out it's not easy to capture a 6-foot-tall, 150-pound flightless bird with sharp, three-toed, dinosaur-like feet, Cordasco said, adding that she didn't want Vance or her friends to be hurt in the scuffle.

So, while Cordasco covered Vance's head, Weaver tackled him to the ground and tied his legs together with a leash.

"Brandi called it 'WWEmu,' " Cordasco said. 

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Vance was then placed in a contractor-size garbage can her husband, Chris, had handy, and they transported him back to his pen, where he was reunited with his emu friend Fridge. Both emus were chicks when Cordasco rescued them. 

It took an hour to subdue the bird.

"We had to take a number of breaks," she said. "We didn't want him to overheat or have a heart attack." 

Relieved to have him back home, Cordasco said it was a long and tough week as she tracked the sightings of Vance while running a dog grooming shop, Must Love Dogs of Wayne. 

"I was exhausted. I slept until 11 a.m.," she said Monday. "I finally got a good night's rest.

Sandy Roberto Cordasco in center works with her employee Amanda Gerold, to get her emu Vance back into his enclosure. Vance escaped last Monday and was recaptured on Sunday.

"It certainly takes a village," she said, "and I can't thank my awesome friends, the fabulous West Milford residents, for keeping a lookout and constantly updating me with sightings." 

Life for Vance and the rest of the animals at her fledgling sanctuary has returned to normal, although she was a bit disheartened by social media sniping about her choosing to keep "exotic pets."

Emus, after all, are prized for their meat and oil.

Vance, Fridge and two young emus, various horses and ponies and several pigs are among the rescued. 

"They won't wind up on someone's supper table," said Cordasco, who is a vegetarian.  

She said that with the help of her "right hand," Amanda Gerold, a 2021 West Milford High School graduate, she will continue to convert the farm into a 501(c) animal sanctuary. 

Matt Fagan is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: fagan@northjersey.com

Twitter: @fagan_nj