Florida Village Fighting Peacock Problem By Dishing Out Vasectomies (No, For The Peacocks)
The village of Pinecrest in Miami-Dade County, Florida, is at the center of a peacock emergency and officials there have settled on a novel -- if painful -- way to curb the wave of destruction at the hands of the brightly-colored fowl.
Vasectomies.
So, if you're in that area and see peacocks clutching bags of frozen peas to their crotches, you'll know why.
According to CBS News, the feathered fiends are reportedly scratching up Pinecrest residents' houses and cars, and leaving messes in people's driveways.
Well, they've finally had enough so starting next month, the community will take part in a new program that gives peacocks the ol' snip-snip.
The least they could do though is wait until the first day of March Madness.
The Peacock Vasectomy Plan Is Part Of A Pilot Program
This plan to dish out some avian vasectomies is a pilot program. However, Commissioner Raquel Regalado, said that if it works, it could be implemented in other area communities.
“The No. 1 complaint is peacocks, and we’re actually moving toward their mating season, where they get very, very aggressive,” Regalado said per WPLG-TV.
The bird whose feathers look like nature's version of an Ed Hardy t-shirt gets aggressive when it comes to impressing the ladies?
Who would've thunk it?!
Now, I'm far from an ornithologist. In fact, I'm the exact opposite; I have a crippling phobia of birds. This is to say that my knowledge of the reproductive habits of peacocks is cursory at best.
I would have never thought of solving this problem with vasectomies, and, in fact, only learned that was a possibility just this moment. My first idea would have been to catch them and realize them in the Everglades. My second idea would've been to pay them to leave.
The peacocks will also be tagged so that researchers can keep tabs on the population, which hopefully won't increase so rapidly once the birds received the quick, outpatient procedure.
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