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With Nimbus, he found a purpose and a friend.

  With Nimbus, he found a purpose and a friend. “She lessened my anxiety, she calmed me,” Olenik says. “She would notice me being down and just come snuggle on me. She brought me back to communicating more. … She pestered me, she got in my face. She wanted me to be active and follow her.” Emus can cause 'horrendous injuries' In February 2023, a neighbor complained the family was keeping an emu. Virginia Beach Animal Control then cited Olenik for violating city code, and a judge fined him $50. While Olenik considered Nimbus a companion animal, the city called the emu livestock. Nimbus the emu roams the backyard. (Courtesy Nicholas Olenik) The American Emu Association, a nonprofit that represents the emu industry, says the birds should be raised for agricultural purposes — such as meat, leather, oil, feathers and eggs — in a proper, safe environment. They can weigh up to 100 pounds, grow to almost 6 feet tall and sprint more than 30 miles per hour, so they need an adequate amount...
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But Olenik says emus are better than dogs.

  But Olenik says emus are better than dogs. After his brother died of a heart attack in 2019 and his father passed away of lung cancer in 2021, Olenik didn’t know how to cope. At the same time, his home maintenance business didn’t survive the pandemic, so he’d just sleep in late and watch TV as his wife went to work and his teenage daughter went to school. He says he was "down and depressed." “Every doctor just wanted to give me drugs, and I didn’t want them,” Olenik recalls, noting he doesn’t even like taking Tylenol. When a friend and his wife retired from the military and started a farm in Tennessee to help with their PTSD, they got an emu. That’s how Olenik first got the idea to get one, too. He says his psychotherapist supported the idea. He bought an egg at an emu farm near his house and brought the chick home in January 2023 after it hatched. Emus start out as tiny chicks, but grow quickly and can weigh up to 100 pounds and stand almost 6 feet tall as adults. (Courtes...
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