Getting Kicked Out of the San Diego Zoo

(Saturday August 2, 2008)
Boomer, the guy who was banned from Disney Land for three years has a knack for this sort of thing. The San Diego Zoo has him filed in a computer somewhere under Banned for Life. But that's what happens when you fight ostriches.

Boomer was part of a behind the scenes tour and decided after a while it was not exciting enough, so he goes wandering.

He makes his way to a loading dock where lo and behold there's an ostrich. Just hanging out, no supervision, standing around looking like an ostrich.

Upon seeing the ostrich, Boomer's first instinct, like all humans upon encountering large, loading-dock-loitering birds, is to give it a hug. Thanks to Boomer, I now know that Ostriches do not like to be hugged. Hugging an ostriche apparently results in a hard peck to the chest.

I also know that when animals bother Boomer, he responds in kind. A bear stole Boomer's food bag in Yosemite so he chased after it and hit it in the face with a trekking pole. Mr. Bear did not like that and bit the pole in half. Luckily it was the pole that broke and not Boomer who lived to tell me some hilarious tales.

Ostrich pecks, Boomer punches. Ostrich bites and draws blood, Boomer punches really hard and knocks ostrich off loading dock at which point he is tackled by zoo security who were following the title fight on camera.

The zoo tried to take him to court, but the judge threw out the case, something about the zoo being negligent.

Boomer also has many overdue library books and the library is threatening to get a collection agency after him, but I figured this story was a bit more interesting.