On stories about catching large birds: when I was a teenager I had a job at a DIY store, the owner of which also had a pet store, which in turn was known in the

On stories about catching large birds: when I was a teenager I had a job at a DIY store, the owner of which also had a pet store, which in turn was known in the area for selling all sorts of exotic animals (this was 20 years when this was still allowed in Belgium). So he had an outdoor area next to the DIY store where he sold garden statues and stuff, and behind that there was a small paddock he used as 'overflow storage' for animals he didn't have room for elsewhere. Usually there were some ostriches in there, which were quite an attraction and drove part of the business. Anyway one day he sold an ostrich and they asked (well, told me I guess... although to 15 year old me it was much better than stocking shelves) me to catch it. They weren't large ostriches (I've seen much larger ones in Australia) but it was still taller than I was at the time (1m80 maybe? maybe there were really emus and not ostriches? I'm just going off what I was told here). So I put on some overalls and the plan was that my colleague would chase it into a corner, I'd jump on it to hold it down, then he'd grab its legs, tie them together, and we'd carry it into a horse trailer they had standing ready. The 'chasing into a corner' part went fine, but then when I got on top of it, it started kicking its legs (obviously) and ripped straight through the legs of my overalls - literally kicking it straight through (mostly without hitting my leg though, fortunately, because those feet are more like talons). So now I was stuck to this ostrich with my overall pants, and to make it worse, it turned out this thing was much stronger than we thought, and it literally took me for a ride. I couldn't jump off because I was stuck to it, and I needed my two hands to hold its neck to keep it from biting at me. So there I was, riding around a wild ostrich with all the customers as audience, my other colleagues laughing their asses off. So I basically had to squeeze my legs to hold on, trying to control its wings, and sort of wrestle it to the ground after which my colleague had the unenviable task to get hold of its feet. In reality it can't have taken us more than a few minutes, but it felt like half an hour, and I came out quite scratched (but with an applause from our 'audience' so the scratches didn't matter). Moral of the story, I guess, is that birds can be much stronger than you think, and overall I'd recommend against tackling ostriches/emus head on. So good thinking to the guy in the OP.