16 November 2023 , 16:23
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A pair of escaped emus "terrorised" clients in the grounds a veterinary practice - forcing them to hide in their cars.
The huge flightless birds turned up in the car park of Edgewood Veterinary Group's surgery in Purleigh, Essex on Tuesday (November 14). Clients bringing their pets to the practice took were forced to take shelter in their vehicles as the daring duo ran at them.
Nicola Watson, nurse manager at the surgery, said: "We were just having a normal, busy day when we suddenly noticed these two huge birds in the grounds of the practice. They ran around to the front of the building where our clients were waiting in the car park and started terrorising them. One of them was quite bold and kept running at people, but the other one seemed a bit more scared. They kept themselves together like a gang. The clients had to hide in their cars. Some of them were absolutely petrified."
Staff managed to herd off the emus
They used some fencing to temporarily pen them inStaff managed to herd the emus around to the back of the building, where they created a makeshift pen with some fencing to temporarily coop them up. Workers at nearby Malden Promenade Zoo, who had heard about the escaped birds, offered to collect them later that day.
In a post on Facebook, the veterinary practice appealed for the emus' owners to get in touch. They wrote: "Today we had some unusual visitors to our Purleigh surgery. Two emus that made an appearance in our garden. Despite desperately trying to find owners no one seems to know anything. Maldon Promenade Petting Zoo has now kindly taken them to look after but we do need to try and either find the owners or a forever home for them."
Furious chimp launches bottle at girl filming him leaving her bleeding at zoo
It is understood the owner of the birds has since been in contact with the petting zoo - and their pets are set to be returned later today.
Nicola said: "This afternoon we were told the owners have been found. We believe the emus are pets which live near the practice and got out somehow. Hopefully they may be able to reunite them with their owner today and we'll get a happy ending."
This comes after Rodney the pet emu escaped from his home in Loose, Kent and was captured on a neighbour's Ring doorbell footage on Saturday (November 11)
Nicola added: "We had loads of people ringing up asking if they were the same emus on the loose in Kent. I'm not sure they can walk that far though!"