A family accused Arizona cops of strangling their pet emu to death after the animal escaped their home Sept. 28.
According to witnesses, cops lassoed Richard’s neck as they struggled to get the exotic bird into their squad car, Fox 10 reported. A neighbor, Michael Davis, witnessed the interaction between the cops and the emu and said the animal was “not aggressive at all,” according to the outlet.
“Richard was our family and they killed her,” the owners said, according to the New York Post. (RELATED: ‘Helpless Creatures’: Owner Returns From Vacation To Find Dead Dog After Sitter Allegedly Didn’t Feed It For 10 Days)
Escaped pet emu dies as cops lasso and wrestle it in Arizona: ‘Richard was our family and they killed her’ https://t.co/CsonWLdhLX pic.twitter.com/flG0Bb33OD
— New York Post (@nypost) October 3, 2023
“I don’t think that it needed to happen the way that it did,” Davis said. He also took video of the encounter which appears to show an officer yanking on the bird’s neck after it had been lassoed to force the bird into the car, the New York Post reported.
“Everyone that was out here witnessing it said, ‘Is it breathing? Are you choking it?” Davis recalled to 12 News. Davis told the outlet that he did not feel that the cops were intentionally “malicious” but just “ill-equipped” and “untrained” to handle the bird.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said their officers arrived after being called about an emu on the loose and that unfortunately “during the corralling, the bird collapsed and died,” the Daily Mail reported. Police also told the outlet, “While responding to this call, deputies analyzed the situation and took into consideration that the emu had been loose before and had previously kicked a Deputy Service Aid in the leg.”
The 6-year-old emu was known for escaping its enclosure from time to time but would always find a way back home, Inside Edition reported.