Huntsman Chased Up And Down Road By Huge Bird

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.

Caters

In the video, a woman can be hears 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."

A witness, who asked not to be named, said: "The huntsmen's hounds were barking near a small holding that contained ostriches from a nearby farm.

"As a result a young rhea escaped and started running on the road - it was very close to the M40 motorway."

Rheas are large ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bone), that are native to South America.

They are distantly related to ostriches and emus. They usually have grey and brown feathers, long legs and long necks, similar to an ostrich.

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Large males can reach upto 170 cm (67 in) tall at the head, 100 cm (39 in) at the back and can weigh up to 40 kg (88 lb).

Although fox hunting was banned in the UK, many Conservatives have voiced their support of the practice.

Earlier this year, Jeremy Hunt said: "As soon as there was a majority of parliament that would be likely to repeal the foxhunting ban, then I would support a vote in parliament.

"I would vote to repeal the ban on foxhunting. I don't hunt myself. It's not particularly my thing... [but] I think we have to recognise that, in terms of balance of the countryside, it's part of our heritage. So personally I'm happy for people to do it."

Amelia Ward

Amelia is a journalist at LADbible. After studying journalism at Liverpool John Moores and Salford Uni (don't ask), she went into PR and then the world of music. After a few years working on festivals and events, she went back to her roots. In her spare time, Amelia likes music, Liverpool FC, and spending good, quality time with her cat, Paul. You can contact Amelia at [email protected].

@ameliasward