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Oudtshoorn is a small Ostrich farming place East of
Cape Town.
We visited one of these farms and were subjected to
a rather amusing tour of the place. The farm was basically a production
line for Ostrich meat, eggs, feather and leather. The bloke who
ran the farm was so blase about this it added to the amusement.
At one point, one of the tourist pointed to a pen
full of about 100 baby Ostriches and asked "How can you tell
what sex they are?"
The Ostrich farmer replied:
"Yu can't tell their sex
until they are about 18 months old ... But it doesn't matter anyway
because we will slaughter them at about 15 months."
and then added;
"If yu lit them git any
older they start fightin' and their feathers get damaged, which
is bad for business. Although the ostrich feather business has been
in decline ever since the invention of the motor car".
His reasons for this were:
"Before the motor car,
it was fashionable for women to wear big ostrich feathers. When
the motor car was invented it became necessary for women to squeeze
into small places (ie through car doors)
where their ostrich feathers wouln't fit."
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