Rebecca Cook

February 27, 1999
 

                  Lovestruck ostrich chases car,
          mistaking stereo for a mating call

                                     By REBECCA COOK
                                         Staff Writer

                  ROCK HILL -- The trouble started with the sheep.

                  The new addition to a York County family's menagerie jumped out of its
                  pen Saturday and ambled into the pasture where Laura Davis keeps five
                  ostriches.

                  ``It freaked them out,'' Davis said.

                  Big Bird, a 400-pound female, kicked down two fences and fled.

                  The real trouble began when the 7-foot-tall runaway heard a loud car
                  stereo on Dave Lyle Boulevard. The booming bass resembled the
                  deep-pitched sounds made by a male ostrich, Davis said.

                  Big Bird, having the mental power of a chicken, chased the car.

                  Officer Don Doster responded; traffic was stopped as the ostrich raced the
                  four-lane highway.

                  ``They don't teach us nothing like this,'' he said.

                  How do you stop a traumatized ostrich that runs up to 40 mph?

                  Very carefully.

                  ``It kicks when it gets mad,'' Doster said, from experience.

                  The capture, attended by six officers and a dozen bystanders, succeeded
                  when they threw a lasso around the bird's feet, tripping her, then threw a
                  blanket over her head and tied her up.

                  Big Bird was returned to Davis, who sells ostrich eggs. Saturday afternoon,
                  the nervous ostrich was favoring her right leg.

                  ``Her poor little drumstick is just one big bruise,'' Davis said.