Emu caught, owner found

The 5-foot emu that's been roaming Minden's open fields this week was caught by employees of Bently Agrowdynamics, located off Buckeye Road, around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. A Bodie Flats resident claimed ownership of the bird on Thursday.

"The emu was moved up to the Wild Animal Infirmary for Nevada in Washoe County," said Carol Money, administrative secretary of Don Bently, owner of Agrowdynamics.

Matt McKinney, the company's cattle division manager, described capturing the bird.

"We used the corrals at the ranch headquarters," he said. "We walked on foot and used four-wheelers to drive it."

McKinney said it took five men, including himself, to drive the emu, first into the corrals and then into a horse trailer. McKinney said he didn't know if the bird was male or female.

"We gave it some grain and water," he said.

On Thursday morning, Janet Duzan, Supervisor of Douglas County Animal Control, received a call from a Bodie Flats woman claiming to have lost a young, male emu.

"She had been looking for the emu but didn't now people were looking for the owner until her neighbors told her," said Duzan.

Neil Bishop, a Bently employee who assisted in the emu's transportation, said the bird had some feathers missing from its upper right leg.

"It appears he might have encountered a coyote during his two weeks cavorting around the Valley," he said. "Luckily, it appears all the coyote got was a mouth full of feathers; the skin was not broken, and he has no other wounds."

Bishop said the owner was overjoyed to have located her emu.

"She has the mother and father, and this fellow is a year-old bird that has been raised from an egg," he said. "Seems during that big wind storm two weeks ago a piece of her fence blew over at night, and this fellow wandered out and got an eight hour head start on her before she even knew he was gone."

Bishop said the emu would stay under observation at the infirmary for a few days, to make sure he's OK, then arrangements would be made for the owner to pick him up.

"It's pretty much a story book ending," said Bishop. "Not only is the bird safe, but the citizens of Minden have been freed from the Great Emu Peril of 2008."