Yard Ornament Stupidity!!!!

frenchblackcopper

Crowing
12 Years
Jul 14, 2009
2,787
213
301
East central Illinois
Maybe some has read here this week where I posted a co-worker was contacted by a lady who had 2 peafowl she needed to get rid of?? For those that may have missed it this coworker of mine asked me if I wanted some free peafowl. I said it depended on what color,ect and he told me a lady he knew needed to place 2 Green peafowl asap,,no reason was given.
I'm a little apprehensive about Green birds because of their mean nature,flightyness,and needing heat in the winter in this cold of a climate in Illinois. Well Monday nite he took a truck home from work and went and picked them up. They were in a large wire cage about 6' long and 4' wide. He took them home and unloaded them in a pen he had that once had turkeys in it. This guy also lives on the outskirts of a good sized town (pop about 6000) Tuesday morning I asked him where the birds were,ect,and he said the lady told him they were Imported stock,and she paid $2500 for them. He has the paperwork on them,they came from Germany originally.
Anyway after he told me they were in a pen where turkeys used to be I told him peafowl are very suspectible to blackhead and turkeys carries it and this disease was deadly to peas. So that nite he moved then to a friends house about 2 blocks away in another pen
Wednesday morning at work I asked him where the birds were,and he said they were so pretty his wife wanted to keep them. I told him this was breeding season and the males were very loud,,he said 2 neighbors had already complained,and he said within a few days I would probably wind up with them. The hen had laid one egg on Tuesday which he kept,but was supposed to bring to me to incubate.
Now we are up to Thursday,he still didn't bring the birds. I asked him if he knew the breeding season was only a few months,and green peafowl only lays about 10-12 eggs,,he said he didn't know that.
So now it's Friday morning at work. Once again,no birds. He was sitting across the counter from me and wasn't saying much. So I asked hows the birds. He then told me when he got home from work Thursday nite,the animal control officer was there and a city policeman as well. Seems the neighbors pit bull dogs who has been out manytimes before crawled over their fence,and then tore into the peafowl pen and killed them both.
Can any of you see the steam coming out of my ears? What STUPIDITY this husband and wife had done. They knew absolutely NOTHING about peafowl,,lived within city limits,,and because the wife thought they were so pretty,they kept them and now they are no more.
I think his wife thought there was easy money to be made by having these expensive birds. They have no incubator,no idea what feed to give them,nothing about medication,care,ect,,and yet someone trusted giving them these birds and giving them a good home. I wish I knew who the lady was,she would also be getting a phone call by me. This is as bad as animal cruelty. Let's just say as well,,pit bulls was bred for one purpose,and that sport no longer exists,so this breed of dog has no real use in everyday society,so now people try to acclimate this breed to have a meaning or function and it's not working.Oh i know,there is plenty of nice,loving pit buls out there but the simple fact remains this dog was bred for one cruel purpose,for a very cruel sport.
I may seem peeved off and it's because I am. Not that I didn't get the birds,my wife said if they were indeed imports we should offer to buy them and I agreed,as long as they wasn't spaldings or had mixed blood in them. This comment suprised me coming from her,but she is really taking an interest in our birds more and more now.
Pretty yard ornaments peafowl may be!! But if you know absolutely NOTHING about them,,do not be the first to take free birds. I was set up to take this pair for several days and I kept waiting,and waiting,only to get a new excuse each day until today that they had been killed. What a preventable loss! Some people really have no clue about keeping this magnificant breed of bird. Maybe I should have acted quicker but every night this week I have been working on new pens for my birds here. I didn't have the spare time,,now I wish I woud have made the time,plain and simple.
He told me last night the hen had laid another egg,2 total and he gave them to a friend who has an incubator. He asked if I wanted them,and I said no,,they should have been brought to me this morning. Yet he chose another "friend" who has hatched a few turkeys in the past to incubate these two eggs. I wonder if this is all a rotten dream? Am I wrong in thinking this guy and his wife are just plain ignorant for the sake of a beautiful pair of birds? Very expensive loss they now have to shoulder even tho they were given free to them. I have many,many more descriptive words I could use for this but I know many here feels the same as I do. What a totally stupid,100%preventable loss!!!
 
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No words for this level of complete stupidity...
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x about a million.
 
Dang Sorry to hear all that. At the very least I would make the guy and his wife feel like total crap about this at every turn. ....for a long while too.
 
I cannot believe this... That is absolute stupidity. Even if I like a bird and want it, I always consider do I have the right setup and room for it. It is a shame you could not have had them....
 
Blue Creek,Destin,New2,,sometimes I don't think many people these days thinks much farther than the end of their nozes. I know within $10 the total cost I have in my building and aviary. I know my feed bill is pretty close to $16.50 per day now. Upcoming electrical costs for heat lites,medicated gamebird feed,water supplements and medications,,are yet to be determined for my hatched peachicks but that season is now here. There is so much more that goes into being a responsible caretaker for birds that would have marginal chances of life in many areas of the world,without our intervention and breeding them under our constant care.
I always hatched first,and built as I needed to. But I knew everything that was involved when I started buying eggs to hatch,and later on,adult breeding aged birds. I knew to breed and house them would take time for building pens and a suitable inside structure for over wintering here.This whole story is like a person wanting to buy a Cadillac on a Geo income.
 
I AM SOOO MAD RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my gosh FBC let me at them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I was so excited because this did seem like a dream type thing. This reminds me of something that happened to us here but with a different animal... My dad had a pet raccoon when he was younger and my mom wanted a raccoon. So my dad told his coon hunting buddies that if they ever came across a baby coon my mom wanted one. Soooo one day what do you know they come across a baby coon, but instead of giving it to us, the guy's son kept it and didn't feed it or care for it and it died!!!!!!!!!!! I was SOOO MAD!

I almost cried when I read this and my dad looked at me like I have issues, but I was worried you would say they got loose and flew away, but this is probably even worse!!!!! I have been waiting YEARS for just one green peafowl... I know I don't have a pen for greens yet so I will keep waiting until I have the right setup so that they will be safe.

I am seriously mad and sad about this...The major thing about this situation for me is if they were real deal imports they were so valuable and ENDANGERED!!!! I read an article just the other day about the work being done to rehabilitate Java greens and release them into a park in Java and it was mentioning about how they are working on getting their numbers up. All of the efforts and money going into these ENDANGERED birds, and someone who doesn't understand how to care for them wants to keep them because they are "sooo pretty". Even if the dogs didn't kill them and they kept the birds, can you imagine what would have happened once winter came??!! They would probably lose all of their toes if they don't have an indoor area for them. This also makes me think about the size of this pen...If dogs broke into my aviary the peafowl could easily get up high enough on the perches to avoid the dogs, so I am guessing they didn't have very high perches to get away? I am just picturing the horror of it all.
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I can't put all of what I feel into words about this. How much I would have loved to just get the chance to get birds like that, and for free? WOW.

PLEASE, if you speak to them again, stress that those were ENDANGERED birds, not just your every day India Blue, not just some bird that is as numerous as the stars...ENDANGERED!!!!! And furthermore, if they were real imports, they were even more rare because in the US there are not that many imported greens. Are you still going to get a look at the paperwork?

My goodness come on people!!!! If they liked the birds so much, they should have handed them over to you who KNOWS how to care for them and then in the future when they have actually learned how to care for such a bird they could buy the pair's offspring from you, but too late for that.

I would get one of those eggs FBC...Maybe see if you can have one. That guy who has hatched a few turkey eggs probably won't have good success and you are good at hatching. If it isn't bad enough that this pair died in vain, it would be even worse if the eggs were not properly incubated and didn't hatch. At least with the eggs there could be hope. I am not sure if you don't want to get involved in it as far as the eggs, but I would for sure. You have more experience and if anyone dang near cares they should give you an egg. That is just my theory. I was jealous that you were offered these birds but I knew you would be a good new home for them since you definitely know how to care for your pretties.

Uh this does seem like a huge nightmare. This story went from the best news to the worst and all very quickly at that.
 
I agree with the stupidity..Do not blame the dog. I know of so many dogs who have had the same outcome. German Shorthaired Pointer, Clumber Spaniel, German Shepherd, a Standard Poodle..etc(speaking from own experience growing up). Its instinct, pure and simple. :) I'm very sorry with the outcome..It seems everyone who goes in with the hopes of profit get the exact opposite. Hopefully they don't make the same mistake again.
 
Minx,I will get the paperwork on them,and if possible get both eggs and rush them home to my bator. It's a 15 minute drive from there to my place. I don't want them to cool down on the way,especially if they have only been incubated a few days,but then again I'm sure the guy who has them now knows as much about peas as the coworker and his wife did. I have not said much to him since he told me they were killed,rather trying to vent my anger away from him. I guess these birds beauty was partly the cause of their demize.
Special Hen,,please look at my avatar and then click on my nickname and then go to my website url. I know what inherited instincts are in a dog,,thus the huge diffrence between a GERMAN german shepherd vs an american bred german shepherd. Our dogs must have the inherited instincts to hunt and track,and protect, they must then attend a working trial which involves tracking,and they must have strong prey drives to do the work necessary to achieve a Schutzhund or IPO working title.One thing I know from first hand experience because we have been in many showrings is this,,the owner or handler of the dog must be in 100% control of the dog at all times,,period! When my dogs does the long attack which is over 100 yards away,,once the agressor stops,you have 3 verbal chances to have your dog stop attacking and then do whats called a "bark and hold",,if he does not listen to you within those 3 attempts,he is disqualified from the ring. People are the pack leaders with dogs and always will be. Any dog that cannot be controlled by their owner or handler should be put down,or never bred,immediate spay or neuter. Our show male has both a Sch3 and an IPO3,,two of the highest world recognized working titles there is,,there is no Sch4 or IPO4,,so our male does have instincts,,but he is 100%controllable,plain and very simple.
 
For the eggs maybe you could bring something like one of those coffee cups that helps hold in heat? Maybe a small cup with a lid and then seal that in a bowl full of hot water with a lid? Also something that wouldn't shake around too much would be good to use. I think those eggs I got shipped from Deerman didn't hatch because they got too shaken up on their way here. I hope you can get the eggs and they hatch.

One person, I think it was Kev on here, used to free-range green peafowl. He said that the neighbors never really cared much about his India Blues, but when they saw the greens walking through their yard they started asking questions and kept saying how nice they are. He said it was for that reason that he felt uncomfortable free-ranging them so he penned them all up. Unfortunately green peafowl do draw a lot of attention which can be good and bad. It can be good for their conservation since most animals that you hear about as far as conservation are generally the more awesome animals. It is like what a science teacher once told our class. He studies Apple Snails, which are endangered, and one problem they have is getting people to care about Apple Snails since they are not a very interesting creature. He said it is very tough for endangered animals that are not cute or pretty or interesting to get public awareness.
 
All of ours were American bred(I think) but I absolutely know about Schutzhund! I'm no pro but I have seen a couple of practice runs and it is something I'd like to do once I have the right breed for it. It's an amazing sport and it didn't click with me with your avatar. Awesome that I found someone else on here interested in it.
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