Frightened by nearby foxhounds in Warwickshire, a young rhea—a large, flightless bird related to ostriches and emus—escaped its pen and wound up on a road carrying traffic. A video of the event taken by hunt saboteurs was turned over to a sympathetic news outlet which painted a picture of a frightened foxhunter getting his comeuppance by being chased up and down the road by this impressive bird. Bottom line? A story of a frightened and angry foxhunter.

Any viewer who knows anything about foxhunting or horses would interpret the video quite differently. Bottom line? A story of a foxhunter doing his best to herd and contain the rhea to the area, alert the traffic, and keep it off the road until help arrived. All, despite the machinations of his nervous horse.

Click for the video. You decide.

Here’s what Amelia Ward reported in LADbible (UK):

“In what can only be described as a classic case of instant karma, a huntsman was chased up and down a busy road by a huge flightless bird.

“The encounter happened between an escaped rhea and a hunt rider in Warwickshire, in which the man looks nervous and tries to get away from the enormous bird. The rhea appears to have been scared by the hunt and riders in the footage, which was filmed by West Midland Hunt Saboteurs.

“In what looks like a defensive move, it then turns on the rider and chases it up and down the road. The hunt member looks furious about coming face to face with the bird – which is said to have escaped in the village of Avon Dassett, near Banbury.

“In the video, a woman can be heard saying to someone who appears to be riding with the hunt: “This is your responsibility, your hounds were in with those, are you going to do anything about it?

“You lot are unbelievable. It has been frightened by a pack of hounds. It is now being frightened by your rider.”

In the UK, foxhunters can’t win for losing.

Posted December ??, 2019