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Two emus banned from Australian pub over their bad behavior
Two emus have decided they enjoy hotel living. But they're driving away the paying customers.
Jessica
07.31.20

You certainly won’t be seeing Kevin and Carol around the Yaraka Hotel in Queensland, Australia any time soon. They’ve been banned for bad behavior.

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The small hotel in the western central Outback has just 4 rooms, a campground, and a pub, so they have to be careful with their clientele.

Kevin and Carol were once regulars at the pub and co-owner Chris Gimblett told CNN Travel that the couple would pop by for biscuits every now and then.

But there were multiple problems with the pair – starting with the fact that they’re emus.

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No one had a problem at first when they would stop by. Then they learned to climb stairs.

“Travelers have to be very cautious with the emus, because they will poke their heads in a caravan door and drink all the coffee without spilling the mug and steal your toast, and if you have a barbecue watch out because they’ll take everything,” he told CNN. “When they finish breakfast at the caravan park they come down to the hotel, and last week they figured out how to walk up the steps of the hotel.”

As you might imagine, last week is when the ban went into effect.

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Pickist

You see, no one gets between an emu and their food. Not even paying customers.

It all began years ago when one of many local animal lovers was given 8 emu eggs that were seemingly abandoned.

“She wrapped them up in blankets and sometime later she heard squeaks coming from inside the eggs, so she tapped them with a spoon and they hatched,” Gimblett explained.

Since then, 6 have left of their own free will and only Kevin and Carol have remained in the town.

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Oh, and it turns out Carol is a male.

Last year the dudebros were given a pass when someone left the gate open and they infiltrated the bar, but now that the steps have been declared emu territory enough is enough.

Now the hotel has a sign that reads: “Emus have been banned from this establishment for bad behavior. Please let yourself through the emu barrier and then reconnect please.”

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Of course, emus can’t read and humans are terrible at following rules, so we don’t have high hopes for this plan, but it’s worth a try.

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And, sure, we build things in places where animals once lived, but unless you’re willing to share your own dining room table with a wild animal, then you probably understand that there need to be some boundaries. Especially when it comes to pecking people for their food.

“They’ve got very sharp beaks and they’re a bit like a vacuum cleaner where food is concerned, so we were worried about them going into the dining room and causing havoc,” Gimblett explained.

Screencap via ABC News (Australia)/YouTube
Source:
Screencap via ABC News (Australia)/YouTube

Are you fine with that after you’ve paid for a room?

How about when they grab toast out of the toaster, as they’re reported to have done?

Ok, how about stepping over the mess they leave behind?

“Because they do eat so much food, their toiletry habits are very frequent … imagine a sloppy bowl of porridge that you turn over from a height of a meter — the splatter is very effective.”

Oh, and speaking of “splatter”:

“But the main reason we’ve banned them is their droppings. They’re enormous, very large and very smelly, and they created great stains,” Gimblett told The Guardian.

And in case you didn’t know, emus are big. They’re also – to put it bluntly – jerks.

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They can stand up to a little over 6 feet tall – and, in fact, that makes them one of the world’s biggest birds. And we’re not talking Sesame Street-style.

“They’re not terribly user friendly, they don’t enjoy being patted but they’re okay with their necks being stroked for a little while,” Gimblett said.

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Kevin and Carol sound like they quite deserve an eviction. The question is, can they really be kept out?

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