NEW YORK - A peacock that roamed into a fast-food restaurant parking lot was attacked by man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said.

Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city's Center for Animal Care and Control.

The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Staten Island Burger King parking lot and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees had been feeding him bread when the man appeared.

He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19.

Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, "'I'm killing a vampire!'"

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them. Authorities were looking for the attacker, described as being in his teens or early 20s.

It was not clear how the bird made his way to the Burger King, but a Staten Island resident who raises peacocks said he had given some to a person who lives near the restaurant.

Linky

Isn't that awful? I know that if I saw someone beating up a peacock, I'd try to stop them at least. Maybe throw somethin' at 'em.

That's sickening. Poor thing.

It's a peacock & not a vampire. Someone is watching too many "vampire movies."

Its usually pretty easy to tell the difference between a peacock and a vampire.

And neither should be eating at Burger King!

I could make so many lame, immature jokes out of this it isn't funny....animal cruelty isn't funny anyway, people...seriously. If you have rage, take it out on your fellow humans.






PS B.K.- Havin' it your way....

It sounds like tis guy has some serious mental health issues, mabey in his state of mind he really saw what he believed to be a vampire, at any rate it,s sad that an innocent animal had to suffer because of his psychosis!

It's no excuse. I have psychosis. I don't believe I've ever beat a peacock. Although, I did mistake my cat for a deer one time... LoL But that's another story.

*Waits for someone to say "Well, that explains a lot..."*

Now, I'd say "that explains a lot"....but hey, I already knew it. It's not a bad thing, trust me.

A male peacock is a beautiful bird (the female is the less colorful more brownish bird) Could he not see his feathers??

All I can say is DUMB ASS BIRD KILLER. Jerk.

Hopefully he gets charged for cruelty to animals...or something worse. Once Animal Control steps in this guys in deep doo doo.

Poor birdie... I would have tackled the man, and probably gotten beat up myself. (Better me than the bird...? )

Yeah, well, I wouldn't expect better in Staten Island.
Beauty and Love aren't noted commodities there.

--Jaylemurph

I,m not saying that he should be excused, i think we all need to be held accountable for our actions! I was just trying think what might have been going on in his head to do something so horrible, because i simply can,t imagine anyone in thier right mind being able to do it.

I can't believe that people are so insane....Peacocks are beautiful birds and to mistake one for a vampire tells me that this jerk was on something....

You want to laugh because it sounds so ridiculous. It made me sad to see the bird had to be put down . Jerk

I thought the days of ruthlessly killing things that were supposed to be vampires was over? I'm just sorry that the bird had to suffer. Animal cruelty is no joke.

That's hilarious, what a moron.

It would make my day if in a couple of weeks a topic about a vampire peacock turned up on this forum.

The poor bird was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Karma is a bitc* though and that guy will get his.

I do not find this funny in the least.

I myself have two Peafowl, male and female (as to the comment about females being brown, I once had a brown one whom is now deceased. This one is white. -^.^-), and they are quite tame.
The male is beautiful during the spring months when he has his tail-feathers in.
Why one would think of a Peacock as a vampire is beyond me. A cannible maybe, during Thanksgiving grandpa thought it would be funny to see if they liked leftover turkey bits, but certainly not a vampire.

Well that's nice, because I do.

What happened to this man?
Someone didn't nothing for seing him doing that??

Would you really want to approach a man who is reacting violently to a peacock for for being a vampire?

I'd imagine that this would be the type of situation where one can do little but watch in disbelief.

Someone should grab him by the neck, hurl and stomp him.....make him feel what its like....a$$hole

Someone could hurt him a lot.
When a man hurts a woman or a child everyone does something,when its an animal everyone watchs,how silly people are.

Peacock fight joke, anyone? anyone? Haha. But anyway, this is so going to be turned into one of those 20/20 hidden camera things...man in a park taking an aluminum bat to a beaver who he says is a demon....what do you do?

=========================================================================

Dear Ambellina, the Prise wishes you to watch over me.....

I would beat or stop him from what is doing to the animal because I say he's a dangerous crazy guy.

You think?

In a perfect world maybe, but not in real life.

I think it's hilarious... disturbing and wrong, but hilarious none the less.

haha so true, staten island is still the dump in my eyes..and nostrals. i only go there to visit friends and family who've migrated from brooklyn.. (and i'll never understand why they did it)

no matter how down hill brooklyn is going, and it is.