A female emu named Enzo briefly escaped from an eastern Ontario animal rescue sanctuary earlier this week, and has now turned into something of a local celebrity.
Enzo’s exploits unfolded Monday in Almonte, Ont., a town located 50 kilometres southwest of Ottawa. She lives at Gagné Homestead and Rescue, off Highway 29 on the community’s southern outskirts.
“With the grace of a prehistoric runway model and the speed of pure chaos, Enzo set off on a solo adventure … exploring the town like a true tourist,” according to a post on the sanctuary’s Facebook page the day after Enzo was safely returned home.
Enzo’s emu companion Blue also fled their holding pen, but didn’t make it past the property.
Emus are native to Australia and are the largest bird found in that country, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. They can reach speeds of up to 50 km/h.
Siobhan O’Keefe, who lives in a community near Almonte, snapped and posted a photo of Enzo up the highway from the farm, near a residential area.
“It’s been a while since I’d been home, so [I] was shocked to see an emu next to the Welcome to Almonte sign,” O’Keefe told CBC via text.
Jeff Gagné, the owner of the sanctuary, has apologized for the concern and disruption the “unscheduled run” might have caused.
He’s also thanked all those “who came together to bring Enzo home.”
“We are unsure how [she] got out but we are in the progress of addressing the issue,” he wrote on Facebook on the afternoon of Feb. 2.
Feb. 2 happened to be Groundhog Day, which had the homestead pitching a new variation on a familiar tradition: “If Enzo the Emu sees her shadow on Groundhog Day, winter sticks around a little longer.”
Following a series of other media interviews in the past few days, Gagné and Enzo travelled to Ottawa for a chat with All In A Day host Alan Neal.
“It is not every day that the team at All In A Day comes into the office and starts the day with the question, ‘Can we bring an emu into the studio?'” Neal said at the outset of the interview as Enzo and Blue nibbled on grapes in a trailer carpeted with wood shavings and parked in front of the Supreme Court of Ontario.
“The answer, it turns out, was no.”
Check out their off-site conversation — including the details that ultimately emerged about how Enzo got loose — on All In A Day at around 4:10 p.m. Friday on 91.5 FM or on the CBC Listen app.
