Audebon Society Kills Peacocks at park on Oahu.

[MyUncle]

This is very sad but true. What were they thinking?

Park's peacocks quelled with bows and arrows

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jul/31/ln/ln17a.html

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Three archers killed about 10 peacocks last week at Waimea Valley Audubon Center after the birds became a nuisance by pecking at children, destroying native plants and leaving feces in the dining area.

Outraged animal-rights activists and others now want to know why more humane methods of control weren't used.

Diana King, center director for the Waimea Valley Audubon Center, confirmed that conservation manager Lance La Pierre and two volunteers shot the birds one day last week in response to problems with a peafowl population that has grown to "several dozen."

King said the decision was made to "trim" the population, not to eliminate the showy, but non-native, birds.

[roguevalley]

1. DAMN! They could have given them away. They're fun. They kept me

aware of where the rattlers were when I would thin pears. This is so wrong.

[HereSince1628]

2. I'm unaware that "rattlers" occurred on Oahu

did I miss something or are you suggesting that this species' value in one location means it is valuable in all locations?

As a zoologist I would have thought non-lethal methods such as capture and removal might be adequate, my assumption is that the managers felt such non-lethal methods were inappropriate.

[Lorien]

3. Giving them away or selling them

would have made more sense. They make good watchdogs, if you have a large property (the are VERY loud)!

The Audubon society-named after John James Audubon, who trekked across America shooting birds and tracing them onto canvas, then painting the tracings (that's why the birds look so stiff in his works). Little bit of trivia from my college "History of Illustration" course.

[MyUncle]

4. Why bows and arrows?

These birds eat out of people's hands. If there had to be selective reduction done, I wish it could have been less brutal. Arrows seldom kill things quickly.

Yuck.

[Bo]

6. An arrow is painful for the animal

they rarely die immediately. We once hunted a wart hog and the wild thing survived for a week with an arrow through it.

[montana_hazeleyes]

5. I just plain think it's horrible to do that to them.

No excuses. There are certainly other ways to take care of the situation .

Humans as a group have so little regards for the other creatures inhabiting this planet.