HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow)
By Minna Sugimoto
A Makaha woman charged with animal cruelty for beating a peacock to death suffered a setback in court Thursday. A judge ruled peacocks living in Makaha Valley are covered under Hawaii's animal cruelty law, and rejected dismissing the case against her.
Peacocks roam freely in Makaha Valley, squawk and leave droppings. So should they be considered vermin or pests, which are excluded from Hawaii's animal cruelty law?
(I did change this text a little to take out the woman's name.)I love birds, most of them. I love the pretty birds that don't sit on our solar panels, poop on our car, eat the buds off the orchids and fruit trees, and are indigenous to Hawaii.
Unfortunately a lot of plants, animals and bird life have been brought over as pets to Hawaii, and let loose when their owners tired of them. They multiplied, competed with native wildlife and often times caused their extinction. This is why we have wallabies and peacocks in Hawaii.
My mother's chief adversary is this red butted bulbul. No, that's not its real name. This bird and the mynah are constantly watching my mother, waiting for her back to be turned and eating her favorite flower buds. They often sit of the roof and laugh at her. That's what she tells me anyway, so I have to believe her.So here's this peacock who was driving this 70 year old woman crazy and not allowing her to sleep (and leaving yuckky poop all over the place). She finally lost it and killed it with a bat.
Hunters are often hired to kill pigs that overrun an area and kill vegetation. I've heard peacocks. They're very loud! Louder than the mynahs. If somebody killed a mynah or a bulbul, would they be tried, put in the news, possibly fined $2,000.00 and put in jail for a year? Is it just because the peacock is a big, pretty bird? Is the value of the bird or animal in its size and beauty?
I'm sorry. I love birds, but I really think this case is pretty ridiculous. I can see her getting a fine, but to be put through this kind of shame and trauma?
POSTSCRIPT: I've just heard that she was acquitted yesterday.
I suppose people lose it and those are the days nobody should be near them but to kill a peacock with a baseball bat is a little bit much for me to digest. I am glad the person will be charged with cruelty to animals. Since that is about the worst thing a human being can do, in my person opinion, I would like to slap her once or twice myself. The only thing worse than cruelty to animals is cruelty to children – my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess she won.
ReplyDeleteIn the old days, Mrs. H used to raise peacocks (from eggs!) at her woods. The sound of dozens of them was not so pleasant to me. I can see how they would drive one crazy.
Hawaii has wallabies, really??
If they're pests they should be humanely destroyed. I can't condone cruelty though I know how loud peafowl can be and how tiring their call can be.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you, Kay. I think it was right that the case was brought. The peacock was just being a peacock. What right do we have to go around bludgeoning animals that annoy us? I'm not a vegetarian; I wear leather; but I believe in animals being treated humanely. How would she like it if someone came round and bashed in the brains of her barking dog, meowing cat or talking parrot? We all find things annoying and even unbearable at times, but that's no excuse for violence against an animal.
ReplyDeletesounds like justice won out...lol!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! Sometimes people forget animals are just animals. May sound harsh, but it´s what I believe.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Hawaii law, passed a few years ago, we are allowed to call the police 911 if our neighbor's barking dog is driving us crazy. Not the Humane Society, but the police!!!
ReplyDeleteIn the case of noisy peacocks? I would place them in the same category as coqui frogs, which are being killed by the government.
Glad she was acquitted.
I can understand the frustration! We have a neighbor who has an outside cat. GRRRRR We have had to replace the sand in our son's sand box because of this stupid cat. Shane then built a plywood lid for the sandbot. The orginal lid was a tarp like thing and the cat pawed around it. The cat also potties in our landscaping. Nothing like weeding and mulching and finding stupid cats droppings! I could never kill the animal though. It's not really the animals fault it's the owners. I think the county or state should be more active in keeping the peacock population under control in neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteNo, beating it to death was cruel and unusual punishment. But I certainly can understand the woman's frustration....that continual cry would drive anyone bonkers.
ReplyDeleteAnimal cruelty is something I cannot abide and so I am glad she was prosecuted. But I do understand how loud Peacocks are, I grew up 1/2 a mile from a group so I was just used to it.
ReplyDeleteActually I would be standing next to Abraham Lincoln slapping her!
ReplyDeleteOooh, tough call, Kay. An old lady's peace of mind vs cruelty to animals. I guess I'm glad she was charged but also glad she was acquitted.
ReplyDeletePeacocks really do sound awful, though.
Wallabies? Where? I like wobblies, but feral wobblies in Hawaii? Interesting!
And your poor mom, being deliberately plagued by birds in her garden. I know mynahs can be very mischievous, but I never heard of bulbuls until we visited Hawaii.
-- K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
never a dull moment in the news Kay!
ReplyDeleteWow, this is a tough one. Having only dealt with peacocks at a distance I have no experience to draw on. I'll just have to hope justice prevailed.
ReplyDeleteYour point is a good one that if it'd been an ugly bird no one would have said a word.
The pursuit of happiness is guaranteed us under the Constitution. It's hard to be happy when a dang peacock screeches 24/7.
ReplyDeleteFinally got my bloglines back so I can visit more often:-)
ReplyDeleteLiving where we do in rural(forested) Maine and having many noisy neighbors, it's understandable some would get upset. Thankfully peacocks aren't native or I'd be going nuts. I once lived in a place where the lady next door, a sweet little Philippina of 60ish years, had birds as pets in a huge atrium-like backyard cage.
2 were peacocks and three were humongous parrots of breeds unfamiliar to me. The smallest must have been 2 feet tall. Then there were the roosters she had. All in all an earsplitting chorus at any and all hours of the day. I finally got used to it.
Then, a few years later I was nearby on a job and decided to pop in and say hi-ya. Well, I soon found out about her newest pets. As soon as I came through her gate I was assailed by very aggressive & noisy 'guard geese', six in all. Never did get to the hi-ya stage.
Well, we have to live with people but also with animals. This old lady was at her wits ' end and didn't know what to do. What she did was wrong but the fact that she was charged is strange. She could do with advice from the local authorities. I remember that some years ago a man, who was warned before hand not to walk to close to the sea line, ignored this warning and went into the sea. He was killed by a croc, which was found. The croc was not killed, because the animal just acted according to its nature. It was sent to a croc farm. This happened in Australia.
ReplyDeleteI still feel bad for the bird.
ReplyDeleteShe/He was just doing what came naturally. Tisk!
We lived in Makaha when we first moved to Hawaii. Peacock poop isn't pleasant stuff. It sticks to one's shoe like glue and smells worse than lots of other stuff that goes by the same name.
ReplyDeleteAt about 2:30 one morning I woke from a sound sleep. I could hear a woman screaming. I was certain someone was being killed. I woke Amoeba. He listened, said "peacock" and went back to sleep.
I can see why the lady was irritated but I can't see sense in killing anything just to get it to be quiet, no matter how obnoxious the sound or how stinky & slimy the poop.
From an email to some friends on Thursday after reading the news:
ReplyDelete"Once again into the breach, my friends. The state has no money to pay teachers to teach our kids and the courts themselves are out on furlough Fridays but no, one stupid bird gets whacked upside the head by granny swinging for the fence and every bleeding heart from here to kalamazoo jumps up in indignation. If Honolulu had its priorities listed somewhere, I would firmly state for the record that the listmakers had all passed away from acute dyslexia."
Yes, you are allowed to call the police if you have a neighbor who has a dog that won't stop barking. The official period is supposed to be 15 minutes of non stop barking before they will consider the complaint 'valid.' Although what "non stop" is, I don't know. You are also allowed to tape the dog and present this as evidence. I think the first couple times this results in a warning issued to your neighbor, then they take action if your neighbors don't curb the noise. But really, what kind of neighbors would you be if you prosecuted a case that far? In reality most of us just put up with it. But peacocks aren't tethered to one owner, nor to one area and they are LOUD. Bulbuls are DESTRUCTIVE to any fruit you may have, you'd not believe how many pecked over mangos I've seen still on trees, in addition to lychee, guava, anything citrus. Aren't airguns a MARVELOUS invention??
aloha,
walt
oh no...poor bird...
ReplyDeletePretty scary, the violence
ReplyDeleteBut to kill it? I dunno.
Around here, this would indicate some deep }
We have critters all over the place, as you know!
:-(