DISQUS

A Day In The Life Of An Ambulance Driver: When Ostriches Attack

  • Anonymous · 2 years ago
    Good post, good story. Sent here by LawDog, and he was right to point us in your direction. Keep up the good work!


    Formerflyer
  • mr fixit · 2 years ago
    Ah, Docs.
  • 308Mike · 2 years ago
    I would sure like to see the ME's report - on both victims.
  • Ol' Lurker · 2 years ago
    I'm an avid blogreader who's constantly on the lookout for bloggers in LawDog's class. You clearly make the grade - humorous, entertaining, informative, a good wordsmith. Hope you stick with it.
  • Paul · 2 years ago
    Either those deputies needed lessons from the Law Dog or this woman is a SERIOUS chicken choker...


    Barry Miller, our man in Africa, tells us of a recent episode down in the Cape Region in which a girl jogger ran into problems with an ostrich. This bird, as you probably know, is distinctly territorial and can become very touchy if he feels he is being encroached upon. He cannot peck, because his beak is made of leather rather than horn, but he butts with his breast bone and follows up with his well-equipped feet. In this case, the object of his resentment "refused to be a victim" and counterattacked, strangling the bird with her bare hands. As is made clear from her name (Bezuidenhout, of Boer distinction), the young lady was of the old time Afrikaaner persuasion. Those Dutch girls may not have free access to firearms, but perhaps they do not need them.



    Col. Jeff Cooper's Commentaries: Vol 11, No. 2
  • Ambulance Driver · 2 years ago
    Well Paul, all I can say is that the old folks never got close enough to do any choking. The grandkids witnessed the attack from the safety of the truck. From what they said, the bird attacked the woman first, and when her hubby tried to fend it off with his cane, it turned on him. And those feet can do some pretty horrific damage. This man had a gash from his shoulders to his lower back that you could see spine and ribs through, and that was just the big wound. The thing also ripped his left ear off among the various and sundry other injuries.


    Were it me, I wouldn't have chosen a service weapon to shoot the bird in the first place. I'd have chosen to pop him at a distance with the Remington 700 in .308 that the shift commander also carried in that SUV. A 168 grain boattail JHP scatting along at around 2600 fps ought to have settled his hash nicely - and on the first shot, too.
  • pax · 2 years ago
    Kinda sheds new light on Lawdog's "Ain't chickens" tale.


    Nice place you got here, btw. You can bet I'll be back to read more ...
  • Seth · 2 years ago
    So how did the drumsticks taste?
  • Ambulance Driver · 2 years ago
    Well, I was unable to collect on those drumsticks...but the greasy spoon in the town we responded from serves a pretty mean ostrich burger. Expensive, but good. Very lean meat. ;)
  • prairie mary · 2 years ago
    When I was a animal control officer in the Seventies, I went on a research visit to LA Animal Control. They said they got an average of five loose pet lions every year, but they weren't much of a problem. Mostly they were lazy old guys who would go on home if hazed. But ostriches were the WORST. They finally found a guy from South America who could use bolos, those three balls on strings that one throws to tangle legs -- sorta on the idea of a lasso. It was the only thing that worked besides gunfire which isn't always practical in town.


    Prairie Mary
  • Hello · 2 years ago
    Not to stray from the storyline too much, but I've never seen an ostrich with feathered heads and necks like the image pictured shows.Did someone breed that into some domestic stock?
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    Funny post! Just read it aloud to my husband. I am double thinking my dream of riding an ostrich sometime before I die. Unfortunately!< />< />I bet ostriches run around for a while after they are dead. Yep - like a chicken running with its head chopped off...< />< />I wonder if those guys had that thought when they started shooting it?
  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    Funny post! Just read it aloud to my husband. I am double thinking my dream of riding an ostrich sometime before I die. Unfortunately!< />< />I bet ostriches run around for a while after they are dead. Yep - like a chicken running with its head chopped off...< />< />I wonder if those guys had that thought when they started shooting it?