- Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said it will be returned to the person it belongs to ‘if he or she is found’
- Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals staff caught the flightless bird three hours after it was first seen
The emu was seen running along roads in Tin Shui Wai. Photo: Facebook/Bosco Chu
Hong Kong authorities are on the lookout for the owner of a runaway emu that evaded traffic on busy roads in the northern part of the city. The bird also sauntered through a public housing estate before it was apprehended three hours after it was first spotted.
A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said on Sunday the large, flightless bird would be returned to its owner “if he or she is found”.
Viral videos showed the emu running alongside cars and entering the grounds of a public housing estate, while a driver in another clip could be seen swerving to avoid the bird as it ran in the opposite direction of traffic along Tin Ying Road in Tin Shui Wai.
Police first received a report about the bird at 7.18am on Saturday, after it was seen wandering along an intersection of Tin Sau Road and Tin Ying Road in the district, and then at 9.13am when it was spotted on Wetland Park Road.
The emu was captured by police and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals staff at around 9.50am, about three hours after police received the first report of its sighting. The AFCD took the bird to one of its animal management centres for observation.
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A man at the nearby NT Green Garden farm, which a source said had recently reported a missing emu that was later found, told the SCMP on Sunday the bird captured on Saturday had been raised there. But others at the farm, which was closed when the SCMP visited in the morning, cut him off and told him to stop speaking to reporters.
The SCMP could not immediately confirm the identity of the man or his relation to the farm, also known as Hing Chun Farm.
The source said the farm reported a lost emu in April, but it was later found.
An AFCD spokesman said on Sunday it had inspected the farm in Tin Shui Wai in April, noting that it was privately owned and not open to the public with an entry fee, making it exempt from exhibition licensing requirements.
“According to the current record of the AFCD, no emu is licensed to be kept under the existing exhibition licences issued by the department currently,” he said.
The 60,000 sq ft farm opened on April 28, 2021. Located in Tin Shui Wai, it is divided into different zones for agriculture, barbecues, leisure, performances and activities, according to a video posted by the farm.
It hosted camping and farming activities for the Junior Police Call with a visit by the deputy director of the central government’s liaison office in the city, Chen Dong.
A Facebook page affiliated with the premise, NTGG Volunteers, features a video that shows a farming activity organised by Yuen Long district councillor Daniel Cham Ka-hung for residents. Goats can also be seen in the footage.
The farm’s owner Chan Ka-fai, who is also a district councillor for Yuen Long, and Cham told the SCMP they were currently not in Hong Kong, with the former saying he was informed that “nothing is missing” from the site.