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AFP, BANGKOK
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A pet ostrich on Tuesday went for a speedy jaunt down a busy Thai highway, before being returned safe and sound to its enclosure at an animal-themed cafe.
The six-month-old male ostrich raced along a three-lane highway in Thailand’s coastal Chonburi Province as cars and trucks sped by the flightless bird, according to a video posted by a man who was driving directly behind it.
“Who lost an ostrich on the road? Come get him. He runs so fast,” motorist Chairat Sompong is heard saying in the video.
This frame grab from a handout video courtesy of Chairat Sompong taken and released on April 7 shows an ostrich running along a highway in Thailand’s Chonburi province.
Photo: AFP
Chairat, 33, later said that he was driving home when he came upon a traffic jam.
“At first, I thought it was an accident, but when I drove close, I saw an ostrich running in the middle lane,” he said.
The ostrich “looked afraid and panicked,” Chairat said, adding that he tried to make it move to the left lane, where it eventually stopped running.
The ostrich, named B1, was corralled about 15km from its pen in the resort town Pattaya, the animal’s owner, Itsara Boriboon, said.
“I was mortified and worried,” Itsara, 43, said. “I was concerned he might have had an accident.”
He said he had bought B1 and a female ostrich called B2 five months ago for 15,000 baht (US$468) and neither had fled their enclosure before.
Itsara, who owns a cat cafe that also features the pair of ostriches, said his employees told him B1 had escaped after noise from a truck delivering construction materials frightened off the big bird.
