KALAMAZOO, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – It’s not an easy thing (to capture emus),” Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller III said during a news conference on Wednesday after his deputies helped corral a mob of loose emus on the run.

He’s right. An emu can run as fast as 31 MPH. The flightless birds have an average height of 5.7 feet and can weigh 66-100 pounds. They can also be dangerous with their long nails if they think they are in a perilous situation while trying to evade law enforcement.

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Fuller said the rogue birds were most likely spooked from the weather and a witness confirmed that a spring-loaded gate blew open from the wind allowing the emus to go on the lam.

Fuller’s office was called by the owners of the emus to request their help in catching the six escapees who ran away from their family farm. The family and the police were both concerned that the emus might cause an accident or injure someone.

Fuller said, “This is something that family and law enforcement take very seriously, the safety of our citizens on the driving roads.”

Fuller said the emus are very fast and a video shows the “rescuers” using food, walking sticks with flags, halters and a net to try to capture the emus. A deputy was also heard making kissing noises to get the attention of the emus.

The police released body cam footage of the incident which will be useful in the future if the emus want to initiate legal proceedings in an excessive force case. However, the Sheriff’s office admitted that the family did most of the work in catching the birds and that they were just there to assist. The whole event lasted about two hours and after it was over, Fuller said, “We’re just fortunate that none of them ran out into traffic and caused a crash.”

Although the emus could have caused great bodily harm with their long nails, in the end, no emus were injured by the Sheriff’s office and no deputies were injured by the emus.

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The Sheriff’s office had initially posted about the loose birds on their Facebook page to alert drivers about the situation and when the emus was rounded up, they said, “We’ve cleared the scene. The owner was located and all emus have been secured.” So it appears that if the emus want to break out of captivity and go sightseeing again, they’ll have to “hatch” a new plan.

The sheriff said it’s not uncommon for them to help with livestock since they patrol rural areas and that they have been involved in the past with capturing cows, sheep, geese and horses. They posted on Facebook that perhaps they should start an emu unit within the department. So far their emu post has garnered 152 comments and 1.5K shares.

If Kalamazoo County hadn’t been able to secure the birds, Allegan County was ready to step in. They posted on Facebook, “This is the real thing” and offered to send units for a perimeter and back-up.

This isn’t the first time that emus have flown the coop in Michigan and it probably won’t be the last time.

In 2015, 84-year-old Mary Tasma was looking for one of her emus and talked with the local media about it. MLive reported that Tasma had raised emus for about two decades and she told the media outlet at the time, “There’s no way you can catch it or corral it.”

Harvey Rudell, who was president of the Michigan Emu Growers Association at the time had said, “An experienced handler may be able to approach an errant bird from behind and grab its wings. But the safest option is a tranquilizer gun if one is available.”

In September of 2021, the Shepherd Police Department got a call about an “escaped feathered animal” What they found was Healy-Mu the emu. The Shepherd Police asked on their Facebook page, “Do you rope it, professional rodeo-style? Do you jump on the back like a professional wrestler? Do you just drive away and pretend you didn’t see it?” The officers decided to follow the emu and it was eventually caught by its owners.

If you are thinking that the photo of the emu looks familiar, it’s because emus have gained popularity recently both with the Liberty Insurance ads and the TikTok sensation, Emmanuel Todd Lopez.

Emmanuel lives at Knuckle Bump Farms in South Florida and has become very popular because of his antics during his owner’s social media posts. The Farm’s TikTok account has 2.4 million followers and the Twitter account has over 847K followers.

The story of the errant emus got us thinking about the reindeer at the Reindeer Ranch in Kalamazoo. That would be a REAL problem if the reindeer got out with Christmas fast approaching. Michigan News Source reached out to Reindeer Ranch owner Carol Borton and she said that they have 14 reindeer and they have never gotten out.

However, whether they are all accounted for on the ranch on Christmas Eve remains a mystery.