The first time I saw an ostrich up close and personal was at a relative's farm in North Florida. He raised ostriches and emus. The ostriches had huge pens as did the emus, and there was a huge incubator and nursery.
He explained how they would precariouslygo into the pens to retrieve eggs for the incubator. Someone would distract the ostriches as another went in and collected football-sized eggs.
I remember feeding the ostriches snacks and hearing their mouth smack together. I also remembered an old TV episode, Lassis maybe? when a guy had racing ostriches that were kept hooded until it was time to race.
It never occurred to me that people would capitalize on this and offer "ostrich riding" as a tourist activity in Africa. I mean...WTF? Who looks at an ostrich and says "sure I will try that."
You get on a terrified bird that has been hooded, and it runs around until you are pulled off of fall off. Again....WTF. Ostriches are birds, not beasts or burden. You are supposed to hold onto their wings when riding them, and even though ostriches cant fly, how would you like to have someone yanking your arms back with all their weight.
I mean, seriously, people - use your brain.
