Good home for peafowl wanted this summer

[Beverly Riverwood]

Dear people,
For over 35 years, I have lived on a hillside with lots of open space around houses in West Country. When I moved in to my small home, the peafowl were already living in the woods and fields. I've always loved and protected them when possible, but now a serious situation has developed. .

About seven years ago, a "neighbor" started shooting at (any and all) animals in the neighborhood, and it seemed like we started hearing gunshots every day. Sometimes he and his Buddy would sit on their porch and shoot down the pasture that separates the properties. I could hear things hitting the studio where I work. At one point, they killed some peafowl with a shovel while yelling at the woman whose yard they were in to "get back in the house." That out of control behavior fortunately has stopped - at least in public. His other neighbors are afraid to cross him, but I had to take him to court last year for breaking the gun laws. .

Right now, I have a restraining order against my neighbor for shooting at the birds, my house and at me - from 20 feet away in plain sight. It was not an accident or mistakes. If he keeps shooting near homes, the court can take his guns and put him in jail. Unfortunately, even this has not gotten him to stop shooting, and last week he killed a mother bird on her nest, took her newly hatched chick and locked it in a building along the property line 20 feet from my house. His intention was to allow us to hear it call its mother until it would die. We could hear him shouting at it to "shut up" as it was calling its mother nonstop. It was horrible but there was nothing we could do but wait. There is no help from wildlife rescue or from the Humane Society.

Fortunately, the six hour old tiny hatchling outsmarted him and escaped, so we are now raising a little one by hand. Late in the day, we heard the baby running down the pasture. He must have squeezed out under the door. He came right to us still calling his dead mother.

We are very worried about the older birds who generally stay on or around our property, but we cannot guard them all the time, and last year's little ones are now adventurous. There are a beautiful male and three beautiful females who are a year old. We can no longer indulge ourselves in loving their beauty as long as our neighbor continues to shoot whatever he sees in his travels up and down the property line. It takes a lot of proof to keep these episodes from just being our word against his. Their freedom is most important to us. We have tried penning them at which point they become depressed and anxious and off their feed. There has to be a better way.

So we are looking for a large and spacious tract of land inhabited by people who can live and let live. Or maybe not inhabited by people at all! Fields, some woodland and a large tree for roosting at night would be the minimum needed. A water source would be good. The problem with the neighbor is that he cannot bear to allow animals to walk on his land. It's his alone. (He says he is not bothered by the calling they do during breeding season in the spring.) So yes, some people can get very annoyed by breeding season, so be aware they do call sporadically for three months out of the year. The rest of the time they are not in evidence except to eat all the bugs around and keep even the deer out of the garden. They are very protective of their area.

So, there you have it. Four beautiful young peacocks in a family are looking for adoption and benign neglect but perhaps some feeding and protection in lean times. Right now they are not too afraid of people, but we have tried not to be 'taming" them as they need their natural suspicion in order to stay alive. Any information about places that are safe for beauty and wildness to exist would be much appreciated. Also, we would like to talk to other folks who are in our situation. Perhaps these birds need a protection association? When Fish and Game tells people that the sacred bird of India is "vermin," something is very wrong.
Thanks for reading.

[email protected]

[Shandi]

What a horribly sad situation! Thank you for your loving concern. I really hope someone in our community can help. I'm not able, and don't know anyone who is.