The emu that ran wild on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Labor Day may have been a local bird after all.
And a Hempfield resident who believes he saw the large, flightless bird hours before it was spotted on the toll road said calls he made for help were ignored.
Anthony Olivo, 63, said he, his wife and a neighbor spotted the bird near their homes Monday morning.
He said he first called state police at Greensburg to report the emu at 9:30 a.m.
But he said a dispatcher simply asked, "What do you expect us to do?"
"That's it," Olivo said, adding the dispatcher gave him the number for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
A dispatcher there told him that ostriches and emus are not among the animals they respond to.
"Nobody would help," he said. "You have an animal that's in a residential area. You have an animal where kids play. Who's to say that it could not go up to one of these kids and peck it to death or use their razor sharp feet? And they have powerful kicks."
Olivo and a neighbor eventually found the missing emu's owner, who lives about a mile away on Buffalo Hill Road.
The man, who did not return calls for comment yesterday, tried unsuccessfully to find his pet.
Olivo didn't know it until he read a Tribune-Review article, but an emu -- the same one he believes was loose in his neighborhood -- was found walking in and out of traffic on the turnpike just about a mile from his home.
State police in New Stanton, who were alerted by passing motorists to the emu around 11 a.m., tried everything they could to capture the animal over a two-hour period. Eventually, a trooper used a Taser on the animal. It later died, most likely of fright and exhaustion from the ordeal, police said.
Trooper Jeanne Martin, public information officer for state police at the Greensburg barracks, said troopers did receive a call about an emu in the Darragh area.
"There was a trooper headed to the area for another call," she said. "He was advised to check the area for it. He was down there. He didn't see it. He didn't see where it was or come across it down there."
The Game Commission only handles nuisance calls related to wild animals native to Pennsylvania, such as bears or deer.
Barry Zaffuto, a supervisor at the Game Commission's southwest region office, said under Pennsylvania law an emu is considered a domestic animal, like a cow or a horse.
In instances where farm animals escape, the Game Commission does not respond, Zaffuto said.
Zaffuto said calls about a emu or other farm animal on the loose are of a public safety nature and should be directed to police or other emergency management officials.
Olivo said he never saw a police vehicle or was contacted by a trooper after his phone call.
And troopers tracking down the bird on the turnpike were not aware of Olivo's call.
"We weren't in touch with Greensburg because we didn't know that was going on there," said Sgt. Anthony DeLuca of the New Stanton barracks.
DeLuca said nobody had come forward claiming ownership of the bird as of yesterday afternoon.
State police believed the bird had fallen off a truck because fencing up to five feet high runs the length of the turnpike and would keep an emu out.
But he said the area where the emu was found is in a construction zone, and some of the fencing is down at the moment.
"It may have run away from down there (Darragh) and trotted the whole way up," DeLuca said. "That could have happened."
DeLuca said a contracted animal-control officer normally would have responded to such a call. But police couldn't reach him because of the Labor Day holiday.
Martin said police simply aren't equipped to handle such calls.
"We don't really carry equipment to try to contain animals, other than what we wear on our belts," she said. "We fly by the seat of our pants and try to do what we can."
Olivo said procedures should be in place to handle similar circumstances.
"How much would it cost to have one or two units have a dart gun?" he said. "I think there should be procedures for this. I intend to go to my state congressmen and raise some hell."
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