Posted on 06/06/2003 6:51:36 AM PDT by freebilly
Vineyards border the enclosed pasture where Michele Mussen imagined an emu grazing, rescued from the Sonoma County Animal Shelter.
Before she finalized plans to transport the stray bird, Mussen learned that someone else was about to take it home.
The details came later from an anonymous caller: The emu had been given to a shelter worker who shot it, dressed it and was about to serve it up at a staff barbecue.
"The whole thing is disgusting," Mussen said. "That was a domesticated emu. It could have been part of a petting zoo, and instead it was eaten."
Barry Evans, who oversees the animal shelter, said the barbecue was about to get under way when he learned the emu was on the menu.
He said he immediately went outside and told staffers the emu wasn't to be served. Follow-up inquiry indicated the bird was neither barbecued nor eaten on shelter premises, although it did end up on someone's plate, he said.
Evans said he since has instituted a policy requiring his approval of all staff adoptions.
He said staff members also are under instructions to ask more pointed questions of anyone adopting animals that could be used as meat.
"I looked at this really closely, and I discussed it thoroughly with all my staff, and the issue is we don't want to give the image of, 'Hey, your animal comes to the shelter, somebody may eat it.' That's not the idea at all," he said.
Although they're chagrined by the public relations problem created by the emu's tale, shelter officials say they cannot mandate that livestock, other than horses, not be used as food. Emus, non-flying birds that are native to Australia, are available in the United States precisely because of their lean red meat.
As with other livestock, including rabbits and guinea pigs, Evans said the shelter staff hasn't typically "made a big deal out of asking them (adoptive owners) exactly what they're doing with it."
In a concession to advocates concerned about rabbits, the shelter raised the adoption fee from $5 to $10 earlier this year, hoping to dissuade anyone considering them for food.
Shelter officials are unapologetic about the situation with Mussen and the emu.
The bird arrived Feb. 21 at the shelter, and Mussen said she expressed interest in it soon afterward. It became eligible for adoption after two weeks.
Mussen said she was waiting to hear whether the shelter might deliver the bird to her business, Countryside Kennel, but shelter personnel said they thought she had lost interest because she never called to say she was coming to get it.
Interim shelter supervisor Cathy Fenn said the emu couldn't be delivered because of the unpredictability of the sometimes dangerous birds and the muddy hillside shelter workers would have had to traverse to deliver it.
Meanwhile, the emu remained eligible for adoption by someone else. Persistent rain made it increasingly inhumane to keep it in its outdoor pen at the shelter, she said.
"We gave them ample time to come get it," Fenn said.
Mussen, detailing a half-dozen exchanges and phone calls, including an inspection of her grounds by shelter personnel, said her continuing interest was clear. She said she was ready to rent a trailer when she learned the emu was going to someone else.
Evans said the bird's fate was sealed when state officials announced a quarantine on all poultry susceptible to Exotic Newcastle Disease. Evans said the shelter staff decided that birds covered by the quarantine, including the emu, would no longer be eligible for adoption and would be put down.
That was March 17 -- nearly a month before the emu was turned over to the unidentified shelter worker.
On April 14, he said, the emu was released to a staff member who shot it at the shelter.
Three days later, employees were gathering outside the shelter to enjoy barbecued salmon caught by a colleague when Evans heard that the emu was to be served as well.
After questions were raised about other animals taken by shelter workers, Evans said he reviewed records back to 1999 and learned that two pigs were adopted last year and apparently butchered.
He said shelter records disprove reports from animal welfare advocates that several wild turkeys had gone directly to shelter personnel in 2000. But Evans said he understands others may have picked up the turkeys on behalf of shelter workers.
While some may disapprove, he said, no law or regulation was broken.
The same, he said, is true in the emu's case -- a point acknowledged by Don Malone, director of operations for the Humane Society of Sonoma County, which looked into the matter.
That said, Malone added: "I'm glad I work for an agency that realizes it's not a cool thing to eat animals that you shelter."
These people are idiots!
They have claws the size of shark's teeth and an angry one could kill a person with a single kick.
[Adressing Michele Mussen] Oh, really, no kidding? It was domesticated? You do realize that most domesticated livestock is raised to be eaten, not snuggled, don't you?
For anybody who's interested, here's a link to the American Emu Association's "About Emu Meat" page.
It tastes more like horse....
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