The Evanston Police Department killed an emu named Gary wandering through a trailer park on Sunday. Police lassoed it and tried to wrangle it to the ground when the bird’s neck broke.
The bird’s owner acknowledges it was an accident, but said police didn’t have to use force to subdue the peaceful bird, while the owner’s mother claims officers escalated the situation.
Police said they had to take precautions to protect officers and the public from an animal known for powerful kicks.
The call came in around 3:30 p.m. Sunday when an emu was spotted wandering around the Grass Valley Mobile Home Park. Several officers responded to the scene.
“Our guys showed up trying to wrangle it to see where it belonged,” Lt.Ken Pearson told Cowboy State Daily. “We knocked on doors and tried calling people, but nobody knew where this bird belonged.”
A Uinta County Sheriff’s Office deputy got a lasso around the emu’s leg, and the officers moved in to subdue the large, flightless bird.
During this effort, the emu’s neck was broken and it died.
“They were holding it on the ground, trying to secure its legs with duct tape, when it unfortunately passed away,” Pearson said.
In a video by Selena Tacey shared with Cowboy State Daily, Gary is seen walking around the mobile home park.
Gary Loved Grapes
The 65-pound emu belonged to Raiden Lopez, 18, who had loaded the bird into a horse trailer and brought him to Evanston just 12 hours earlier.
He said acquiring the emu was “the deal of a lifetime.”
“I drove to Mount Pleasant, Utah, to get him the day before,” Lopez said. “I was planning to use him in a petting zoo at the fairgrounds.”
Lopez said Gary the emu was “super friendly.” He enjoyed feeding him grapes and watermelon, and even his 4-year-old sister felt safe getting close to him.
The bird was being kept in a fenced backyard when Lopez and his family went into town for lunch.
Apparently, the emu jumped the fence because he “wasn’t getting along with some llamas” that Lopez also owns.
“I was getting text messages about an emu being killed, so I went home and saw there was no emu there,” he said. “I got multiple pictures and videos of him just walking through the neighborhood and found out it had been killed down the road, not even a block and a half away from where I had the horse trailer with other animals.
“It should have been obvious where it came from.”
Lopez said the emu died from a broken neck sustained in the struggle after its leg was lassoed. He lamented the loss of Gary, especially given the effort it had taken to acquire him.
“He was a cool bird,” he said. “I'll never be able to find one like him, and I drove over 300 miles to get him. It just kind of sucks.”
Emu Emergency
Many Wyoming law enforcement agencies have protocols for dealing with animals in urban areas. There isn’t an established procedure to follow when it comes to wrangling emus.
Lopez was critical of how the responding officers handled the situation.
Emus can kick and “attack” people when provoked or when defending territory, but they’re also known for being relatively placid big birds, he said.
“He probably would have followed anyone if they had grabbed some grapes or any other fruit and led him to safety,” he said. “There were multiple yards that they could have asked to keep him in until they found the owner. If you grab their backs, you can steer them around.”
Lopez was especially critical of the decision to rope the emu’s leg. He said that was “the worst thing you could do.”
“He should not have been roped,” he said.
Pearson said the emu was roped to keep the officers and other residents of the mobile home park safe.
“There's no protocol for lassoing a 4-foot bird running around a trailer park,” he said. “Emus can kick pretty hard, so there was a concern for our officers’ safety.”
Lopez acknowledged that everything that happened was “an accident,” but feels the situation escalated far beyond what was necessary.
“There were seven cops and a sheriff’s deputy there when it died,” he said. “They all felt bad and said it was accidental.
“He tried to kick, but that's what a bird is going to do. It can't fly. It's defenseless. All it's got are its feet, so when its feet are taken out from under it, it's going to freak out.’
Lessons Learned?
Kim Lopez, Raiden’s mother, said her son had spent the last three weeks fighting wildfires in Utah to get the money to pick up the emu.
He was using that money and other money he earned from odd jobs and graduation gifts to set up a petting zoo at the Uinta County Fairgrounds.
“He is one of the most helpful and willing people I’ve ever met, and Gary was the sweetest bird ever,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “He just graduated from high school and wants to give other kids cool things to see and town in this town.”
Kim was more blunt about her assessment of how the responding officers handled the emu emergency. She believes their response during and after the incident was unwarranted and inconsiderate.
“They didn’t need to wrangle it to the ground and cause it to break its neck,” she said. “I could see the emu being scary, but he wasn’t running around or being frantic in any of the pictures and videos we’ve seen.
“They could have called someone more equipped, like from Wyoming Game and Fish, to handle it.”
Kim added that one officer they spoke to after the incident was “very rude and inconsiderate” about what happened.
Evanston Police Chief Mike Vranish called Raiden personally and apologized for what had happened.
“They admitted they should have done things differently,” she said. “We understand it was an accident, so we’re not mad. We’re disappointed, and it definitely should and could have been handled better.”
Kim hopes there might be some way for Raiden to be compensated for the loss of Gary the emu. The bird’s escape from a fenced yard was unexpected, but it didn’t need to die.
“My son doesn’t party or cause problems,” she said. “He works hard, he works his butt off for his animals, and he wants others to be able to enjoy them.”
Pearson acknowledged that the outcome of the incident was unfortunate. He and the other officers will be more aware of their response in the event of another emu emergency in the future.
“I can honestly say it’s a first for me in my 25-years-plus of experience,” Pearson said. “We learned not to try holding it down and maybe let it run around a bit rather than trying to control it.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
