Police in Massachusetts went on a wild emu chase Thursday after the aforementioned bird escaped its enclosure and ran amok not only through one town, but into the neighboring one as well.
The chase started when owner Lee Flaherty arrived at his East Bridgewater home to find that his beloved emu Mallory had jumped her six-foot enclosure fence, WCVB reported. Flaherty surmised that Mallory, a bit skittish, had been spooked by a wild animal. As the concerned owner attempted to coax her back into her pen, however, a passing truck thwarted his efforts and sent Mallory running for the hills…or in this case, the neighboring town of Brockton.
Mass. emu leads owners, police on chase through several towns, city https://t.co/IBW6QQtNLC
— WCVB-TV Boston (@WCVB) February 10, 2023
“They can do about 35 [miles per hour], so she was flying,” Flaherty told the outlet. “She ran all the way up to an intersection and then cut into a field. I got up to her in the field and was walking with her and she wouldn’t come. She was terrified,” he added. (RELATED: Emu Gets Loose In Suburban NJ, Eventually Captured By Officials)
Mallory raced her way past a local college and a hospital and struck out for the center of Brockton, five miles away from East Bridgewater, as reported by WCVB. Bewildered residents began calling the Brockton police around 9:30pm, prompting them to join in the chase with animal control and Flaherty, Boston 25 News reported.
After three hours and a lot of teamwork, Mallory was finally corralled in a shopping center parking lot where she was loaded up into Flaherty’s SUV and driven back home to East Petersburg, WCVB reported. Though she is sporting an injury to her leg and seems a bit shaken by the episode, Flaherty told the outlet she seems to be otherwise okay and is happily re-situated in her pen with her companion Mickey.