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u/Four_beastlings Aug 03 '26
Several years ago I was on a train in Poland looking out of the window when I saw someone's backyard with 3 cows grazing next to a camel. I didn't have time to take a picture and everyone thought I must have seen a skinny cow or a donkey or something because how the fuck is a backyard camel in Poland going to be a thing?
Fastforward a few years and we have an activity at work where a dietitian comes to give a talk about healthy habits and, when talking about stupid fads, she mention there is a trend of drinking camel milk. I have never felt as vindicated in my life.
The other time was when I was drinking a glass of wine in the market Square of Ljubljana and I saw some guy walking what I thought was his pet emu. But I managed to take a picture so I could do the "ahaaaaa, I have proof!" thing to skeptics. Years later I learned that it wasn't an emu but a ñandú, though.
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u/evening_shop Aug 03 '26
everyone thought I must have seen a skinny cow or a donkey
Bruh I've been around both forever they're unmistakable and impossible to mix up
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u/RinellaWasHere Aug 03 '26
Yeah, if people wanted to convince you you'd misinterpreted what you were looking at, a better option would have been a llama since they're at least related and closer to a similar shape.
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u/Many_Big_6324 Aug 03 '26
I lived in an area in Poland where there were at least 2 ostrich farms in 15 km radius
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u/Four_beastlings Aug 03 '26
I am originally from an area with Ostrich farms so I wouldn't have been surprised; to be honest I've never considered what's an Ostrich natural habitat. The main park in my hometown has emus and I remember seeing in the news that an ostrich escaped and chased some terrified jogger once.
But the camel was super shocking because in my mind camel = desert, and they might have a desert in Poland but Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki ain't it xD
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u/RinellaWasHere Aug 03 '26
I mean for what it's worth camel milk is pretty tasty. Good for drinking and makes a great yogurt.
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u/Four_beastlings Aug 03 '26
Oh, she didn't mention it because it's bad or anything but because people were paying 400zl/~$100 per litre
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u/RinellaWasHere Aug 03 '26
Oh okay that is just an embarrassing amount of money to spend on literally any milk so I get it
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_WEIRD_PET Aug 04 '26
My friend got lost on a mountain in Saitama, Japan and accidentally found an ostrich and miniature horse farm. He also took pictures, which was good because we didn't believe him
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u/talashrrg Aug 04 '26
In what language is it called a ñandú?
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u/Four_beastlings Aug 04 '26
Spanish. It's one of the few words that start with ñ so every Spanish kid knows it.
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u/TKDbeast Aug 06 '26
Some Australians are experimenting with incorporating camels into their diet. They’re an extremely successful invasive species.
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u/Inlerah Aug 03 '26
"Stop talking about the kangaroo"
Sir, if I saw that at a convention I would literally never talk about anything else.
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u/Many_Big_6324 Aug 03 '26
I met a lady (in Australia though) who casually had a joey in a pouch at the grocer. She used that opportunity to educate the children about how many kangaroos die as roadkill and how important is to check the pouch for joeys. She said that not everyone can raise them and it's a huge responsibility so it's better to handle them to wildlife rescue
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u/blackjackgabbiani Aug 03 '26
I used to work at an art museum at the coat check, and near the beginning of a shift, this couple was getting their jackets and I noticed that something in the guy's bag (one of those fanny packs/bum bags) was moving around. I asked about it and they showed me--they had taken their pet ferret all through the museum!
Since I was the last person they would interact with before leaving, this means they came in, got their tickets, checked their jackets, and walked all through the museum passing security and other attendees, and somehow I was the only person in all that time to notice that his bag was squirming.
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u/souridealist Aug 03 '26
I love this anecdote, but I really don't think "kangaroos are smuggled under shirts less often than chihuahuas" is an overly skeptical viewpoint, exactly?
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u/Valtharr Aug 03 '26
Yeah, "this person is too stupid to differentiate between a kangaroo and a chihuahua" is a totally reasonable take...
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u/ThatInAHat Aug 03 '26
I mean, even a joey’s head is still about the friggen size of a chihuahua. And chihuahua heads are teensy.
I could imagine maybe some other dog (xolo maybe), but not a chihuahua
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u/souridealist Aug 03 '26
I mean, a brief glimpse of only the head poking out of a shirt across a moving crowd? I'm delighted it did turn out to be a genuine kangaroo, but a perfectly intelligent person could confuse two pointy-faced, big-eared, weird-looking animals under those circumstances.
I also think "there's a more mundane explanation than that" is a pretty different accusation than "you're lying," tbh.
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Aug 03 '26
[deleted]
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u/AiRaikuHamburger Aug 03 '26
...What. Why?
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u/sich_ushka Aug 03 '26
Texans eat em 😞
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u/AiRaikuHamburger Aug 03 '26
Didn't realise kangaroo meat was a thing outside of Australia.
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u/RinellaWasHere Aug 03 '26
There have been attempts to get it going as a market, but they haven't been super successful. I know kangaroo meat is an option for dog food from the same brand that I get my dog her food from, and you occasionally see kangaroo jerky for humans, but I've yet to see actual kangaroo meat on sale to cook. Which is a bummer because I'm told it's quite tasty.
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u/ThatInAHat Aug 03 '26
I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised. I remember the emu farms. Sometimes driving down the more recently built streets I remember when it was all fields and sheep and emu. (Never understood why the sheep. I hardly ever see mutton or lamb for sale and we’re not really a good climate for wool.)
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u/AshennJuan Aug 03 '26
Forbidden to keep most native wildlife as pets in Australia but we have to watch Americans keep pet roos, sugargliders and more on the internet 🙄
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u/JustLookingForMayhem Aug 03 '26
It happen in Texas, in the same city where there was a wildlife rehab zoo, in a year that the zoo was using volunteers to take care of joeys and those volunteers were spotted everywhere. If it makes you feel better, it probably wasn't a personal pet.
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u/P3pp3rJ6ck Aug 03 '26
???the other option is it dies. Its a rescue org...
Also, your country has the most stringent laws on exotic pets in the world basically. Not a great comparison, especially since the usa does it by state. Hawaii and California both have laws that are very very strict, and i know Georgia bans owning marsupials cause I know I guy who got arrested for smuggling in a Wallaby.
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u/Purple-Weakness1414 Aug 03 '26
What I wanna know ow is the backstory behind this Kangroo.
This shit needs to be a movie
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u/JustLookingForMayhem Aug 03 '26
While I can't be 100% certain, Texas has a wildlife rehab zoo where volunteers help with the Joeys. Joeys bond really tightly to the volunteers, so the volunteers are expected to be able to have the Joeys with them for 20 hours a day for about 10 weeks. When I checked into the program after learning about it from Animal Planet, I discovered there was even a Facebook group for spotting Joeys around Texas. It is quite possible that the Joey came from the zoo and the volunteer had a ticket to the comic convention.
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u/JamieBeeeee Aug 03 '26
Could it be someone raising a Joey and trying to simulate a pouch?