Las Vegas: Canadian Tourist Convicted on Two Animal Cruelty Counts for Taking Flamingo Peachy, Sentencing Set for December 1
In Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, a Clark County jury on October 19 convicted Mitchell Grant Fairbarn, a 34-year-old resident of Ontario, Canada, of one felony and one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty. Sentencing is set for December 1, and he remains on house arrest.
Around 5 a.m. on March 3, Fairbarn entered the wildlife habitat at the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel, grabbed Peachy, a 27-year-old Chilean flamingo, by the legs and neck, and carried the bird to his hotel room on the 14th floor. Hotel employees later found Peachy in a hallway; police said the flamingo had lost seven or eight feathers, had blood on its plumage and showed signs of wing injuries.
During the five-day trial, prosecutors presented surveillance video and social media photos. Fairbarn testified that he had the bird for about 15 minutes and had meant to show it to friends as a joke, with no intent to harm it; he said he had drunk 30 to 40 beers over roughly 24 hours before the incident. Veterinarian Tiffany Moore testified that Peachy has mostly recovered but is more anxious and nervous when being evaluated.
The jury deliberated for about five hours before returning the guilty verdicts. Defense attorney Josh Tomsheck said Fairbarn made bad decisions while intoxicated, deeply regretted them and did not mean to harm the bird. Fairbarn faces up to four years in prison on the felony count and up to six additional months in county jail on the misdemeanor; he has not yet been sentenced. The flamingo habitat at the Flamingo hotel is a free attraction on the Las Vegas Strip.
(GSM, based on reporting by USA TODAY and the Associated Press)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 火烈鸟（资料图，非涉案的 Peachy 本人）/ Flamingo (file photo; not Peachy), Wilfredor, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
