OK, this is just too strange and funny!
Yeah, I know, it’s money lost and all, but you just gotta wonder…is he suing because of the money, or on behalf of the females for the six month loss of consortium? 
Wasn’t there a similar story a year or two ago about a hot-air ballon race (or something) being sued because they fly over some farm and spooked the ostriches or llamas and cause a stampede and a few deaths? In the linked case, it sounds like the male ostrich was just being ornery for a few months…not getting enough respect from the girls, so he plays up his “disability” for a few months to get some sympathy points!!!
Best thread title I’ve seen in weeks, by the way.
It sounds like it should be an episode of a talk show.
“On the next Jerry Springer- ‘You Made My Ostrich Impotent!’”
I’m not an Ostrich Expert TM or anything, but it seems to me that if male ostrichs were that skittish, then the ostrich would have become extinct long ago.
Lion scared the ostrich by the river? Impotent.
Thunderstorm? Impotent.
Herd of some four legged creature tramples by? Impotent.
Of course, it would suck to be a female ostrich…
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Yeah, but lousy band name.
I keep reading the thread title as “Omnipotent”.
All-Knowing Ostrich would be a good band name, though.
In all fairness, though, I was involved tangentially in a similarly goofball situation. Some people south of Fort Drum, NY, had a fur farm, and the Army helicopters would overfly the farm and panic the animals, which were in cages of course. While I don’t condone fur farms either, I can see the distinction between having a fur farm with animals in cages, and having a fur farm where animals in cages are being panicked by helicopters flying low on training exercises every few days.
I can’t get this image out of my head:
An ostrich with his head dangling around his feet, because - well, you know.
Why, thank you! :o
The whole thing really struck me as funny, because I can just imagine the lawyers arguments. How in the world could you keep a straight face while cross-examining a man on just how much sex his ostrich typically had in a six month period? 
There’s a way to improve on it however:
Have the ‘quote’ be in the orginal German.
According to Google Translate:
Du bildetest meinen Ostrich machtlos!
(though I suspect that isn’t grammatically correct…)
To the Tune of the Czarist National Anthem (think 1812 Overture):
Ostrich Omnipotent!
Bird who ne’er fliest
Thou needest Viagra;
Levitra for thee!
Has anybody considered the possibility that when the firecrackers went off, Gustav thought he was being shot. And that even after he figured out the truth, he realized that life was short and he could no longer waste his life sticking his head in the sand and living a lie. And that it was time to be what he really was - a proud gay ostrich - and to hell with what all the other animals in the zoo thought.
Well, I have to admit, I hadn’t thought of it that way. It does, however, make sense.
A regular occurance in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and apparantly a bit of a money spinner for farmers :rolleyes:
BTW the latest development in the case (article, German language): the judge proposed the parties settle for vet costs plus 120 hours of work on the ostrich farm by the respondents. The plaintiff did not accept this proposal; now an ostrich expert (struthiologist?) is going to testify on the next court date on 4th June.
Re: Thread topic
Been there, done that.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=411096&highlight=ostrich
<yawn>
Isn’t this a clasic example of counting your eggs before they’re hatched?
Title: Dream On
Change it to I would have had a field of peas, if it had been planted, but somebody broke my tractor, so I didn’t plant the peas, so they owe me for a harvested pea crop. I didn’t have an obligation to rent a tractor in the interm, to plant the crop, and minimise my losses.
I lost the farm because I couldn’t pay the morgage, because they broke my tractor, so I didn’t plant the peas, and they owed me for a harvested pea crop, because it wasn’t up to me to rent a tractor to plant the crop, and minimise my losses, so they owe me for a farm.
I lost my popular famous resort, because I was going to build it on the farm with a second morgage on the farm, which I couldn’t do when I lost the farm because I couldn’t pay the morgage, because they broke my tractor, so I didn’t plant the peas, and they owed me for a harvested pea crop, because it wasn’t up to me to rent a tractor to plant the crop, and minimise my losses, so they owe me for a popular famous resort.