On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2015, eighteen-year old student Cassius Mankin entered the property of Bob and Carol Falk in Comanche County, Texas with several other people, both minors and adults. They took the couple’s emu to a party where they allegedly punched out her eyes and choked her to death. Police charged Mankin, a high school football player, with felony animal abuse. See Cassius Mankin, High School Football Player, Accused Of Torturing Emu At Party.

In a phone call today, the Comanche County District Court Attorney’s Office told United Poultry Concerns that the case against Cassius Mankin is “pending.”

Emus are gentle, friendly birds with a strong family life in which both parents actively participate in nest-building, incubating and raising their young. Emus are members of the oldest living family of birds on earth, known as ratites, or flightless fowl, which includes ostriches.

Cassius Mankin has been charged with felony animal abuse.

What Can I Do?

Please write a polite letter in your own words to the Comanche County District Attorney urging that Cassius Mankin be prosecuted for felony animal abuse. While all forms of animal abuse are egregious, punching out the eyes of a living creature is a particularly brutal act of sadism in the individual who would do this. Molly the emu was not an "it." She was a fellow being, a beloved member of a family, who suffered the utmost agony and terror at the hands of her killer.

Contact:

Judicial District Court Attorney B. J. Shepherd
PO Box 368
Meridian, TX 76665
Phone: 254-435-2994
Fax: 254-435-2952
Email address unavailable.

The long necks and excellent periscopic vision of emus enable them to survey the land for miles in all directions at once.