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permaculture - Re: What to do with an emu?

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  • From: Mikal Jakubal <mjakubal@asis.com>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: What to do with an emu?
  • Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 20:35:54 -0800


mIEKAL wrote:

>whats wrong with having an emu as a pet in a permaculture landscape, seems
to me
>that pets, exotic or otherwise, should be a legitimate part of any
permaculture
>village design. my son for instance, will not eat any eggs or chicken
because
>they are his friends, but yet he derives just as much or more use & pleasure
>from them as us carnivores.

While I agree with the above completely, I decided today that emus aren't
my pet of choice. Went up and looked at them--though trippy and fun to look
at, they'd be expensive pets to keep. The main thing I have against them is
that, from a Pc perspective, they're kind of a drain on resources. Though
mostly just pets, the geese and the stray kitty I just adopted help earn
their keep so I don't mind importing food for them. Not only would the emus
require bags and bags of food each month, but the land devoted to them
wouldn't be very useful for much else. They couldn't be let loose anywhere
near a garden or young orchard, nor near the house because of their big
stinky poops. On my place that leaves a limited amount of area for them,
and I don't want it to be so constrained in use. Hard as I tried, I
couldn't think of any way to stack functions around an emu pen at my place.
I suggested them to a friend who has plenty more space and he's interested.
Thanks for the responses and emu info. It was an interesting learning
experience anyway!


As an aside, I found an injured owl on the road last night. It's at a rehab
center nearby. Poor thing had probably been on the ground for a while as it
was quite emaciated. Will know in a day or two if it will make it. This is
the third hurt bird I've brought in. Birds--healthy or otherwise--seem to
find their way to me.

Mikal




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