Emu rescued in Williamstown
People living in Parkersburg worked together to help the stray bird
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) -
An unusual find ruffled some feathers in Parkersburg.
People from Williamstown to Parkersburg saw an emu going through their neighborhood.
Christy Braham’s husband made an unusual find in her backyard Wednesday evening in Parkersburg.
While doing home repairs he found an Emu inside his fence.
“… he saw a neighbor stop by at the end of the road down here and was looking up and didn’t know what he was looking at, and then he turned around and there was an emu right in our yard,” described Christy.
Emus are members of the ostrich family, and not common in this area.
People living in the area said they were surprised by the site.
Christy said they didn’t know what to do when the found the bird, so they called 911.
Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard said he received the call around 4:58 P.M and sent 2 officers to the scene.
Christy described the capture, “It took a little while, about 15-20 minutes to corral him to where they can touch him and get him down. My husband helped them. And then they kind of like hogtied him so he didn’t use his legs.”
Sarah Rollyson helps take care of stray animals in the area, because of this she said she received around five messages about the emu.
Sarah reached out to people she knew that had emus to ask for help in how to handle the situation.
That’s when she messaged Earl Khorsrovi, owner of the Alpaca Run Farms.
He was the only one I knew that would say yes to it, you know. I didn’t know anyone that would “foster” this type of animal
Earl went out to Christy’s and picked up the stray animal.
“When I picked him up.. he was tied up and put him in a wheel barrel and tried to retain him. And then I got him in my trailer. We untied him. I got the ropes off of him and let him sit there for a while and he popped up and it was pretty good.”
Earl said he’s fostered large and exotic animals like sheep and alpacas, but this is his first experience with an emu. He said he spent around 3-4 hours looking up information online and speaking with other people who own emus to make sure he can take care of the animal in the proper way.
Earl believes the emu has been out in the wild for a while.
He said he doesn’t know where the emu came from because they can travel a long way.
“ When we got him, we looked over him yesterday and today and he was covered in ticks. So we had pulled a lot of ticks off of him already. So he’s been out there for a while.”
The bird has been given the name of Kevin and Earl believes that he may be someone’s pet. Earl described Kevin as tame and not aggressive. Making him think he was a pet for some time before he got loose.
Earl would like to see Kevin stay at the farm, but knows that he might have an owner out there looking for him.
Earl says that while Kevin is with him, visitors are welcome.
“Kevin’s out here for anyone to come and see. My alpacas are out here. We’re open to the public Monday through Saturday 8 A.M- 4 P.M.”
Sarah said she plans to go see seeing Kevin after he gets comfortable in his new home.
Alpaca Run Farms is located at 114 Mill Run Rd. Parkersburg, WV 26104. You can call them at (304) 480-9303.
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