Charli XCX: Florida Man attacked and Killed by Pet Bird called Cassowaries — The first human killed by the species since 1926

A Giant Bird Killed Its Owner. Now It Could Be Yours.

Cassowaries are a flightless type of bird indigenous to Australia and Southeast Asia. They are huge, emu-like birds with claws and have a violent reputation.

There will be colorful macaws, lithe lemurs and cackling Kookaburras for sale at an event billed by organizers as “the dispersal of the animal estate of Marvin Hajos.” But the animal that is likely to get the most attention is the giant bird that killed Mr. Hajos this month.

That bird — a hulking, flightless cassowary with a daggerlike claw on each foot — will go up for auction on Saturday alongside about one hundred other exotic animals that Mr. Hajos, 75, kept on his property near Gainesville, Fla. (Several other cassowaries are also slated to go on the auction block.)

Mr. Hajos fell between two cassowary pens on April 12 and was attacked through the fence by at least one of the birds, said Jeff Taylor, the deputy chief of Alachua County Fire Rescue. When rescue workers arrived they found him grievously injured on the ground between the two pens. An angry bird stood in one of the pens.

“A couple of people from our crew had to dodge the bird themselves,” Mr. Taylor said. “The bird was obviously agitated and was trying to come at them through the fence, but they were quick enough to get themselves out of the way of the bird.”

Cassowaries are emu-like birds that can stand up to six and a half feet tall. They have an almost prehistoric appearance. Their bright blue faces are topped with a hornlike ridge and their bodies, which can weigh up to 130 pounds, are covered with dark feathers. Their two muscular legs each sport one dangerous claw up to five inches long.

“My understanding is these birds are fairly shy around humans but if they are provoked or they have an opportunity they will be very aggressive,” Mr. Taylor said. “It may be they saw him fall and had an opportunity and decided to attack.”

Cassowaries have a violent reputation but human fatalities appear to be rare. According to Scientific American, the last recorded cassowary-on-human killing happened in April 1926, when a bird slit the throat of a 16-year-old boy in Australia who had fallen while running from it… More

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