A flamingo that was injured during an alleged bird-napping by a tourist last week is expected to make a full recovery, according to a local veterinarian who treated the bird.
Tiffany Moore, medical director at Lone Mountain Animal Hospital, said Peachy, the 27-year-old flamingo who authorities say was injured by tourist Mitchell G. Fairbarn, suffered injuries to his wings. But she said he is now back at the Flamingo hotel-resort’s Wildlife Habitat.
“He’s stable and alert right now, and just getting back into his normal routine,” Moore said. “We’re still closely monitoring him to make sure we don’t see any changes, but we’re hopeful that he should make a full recovery.”
Fairbarn, 33, faces animal cruelty charges after the Metropolitan Police Department accused him of illegally entering the flamingo habitat on the Las Vegas Strip early Tuesday morning, taking Peachy back to his room and torturing him.
The alleged crimes
Fairbarn was charged with four counts of felony willful or malicious torture, maiming or mutilation of an animal kept for companionship or pleasure. He’s scheduled for an initial appearance in Las Vegas Justice Court on Monday, according to online court records.
Court records indicate Fairbarn’s $12,000 cash bond was posted Wednesday. Fairbarn’s name did not appear on an online roster of inmates at the Clark County Detention Center on Sunday.
Police said Fairbarn’s cellphone contained photos and videos of him torturing Peachy in his 14th floor hotel room by choking him and throwing him to the floor while laughing.
In one video, he choked a flamingo’s neck as the bird screamed and cried, records indicated.
“We’re grateful that he survived and that authorities were able to intervene before things got more severe,” Moore said. “There are secondary illnesses we worry about when it comes to capturing an animal that’s not used to be handled frequently. We were more frightened about those things, originally. He should be able to continue a normal life.”
According to the report, Fairbarn told police he was drunk and that he couldn’t remember chasing flamingos at the resort. He told police, the report said, that he admitted to “his actions being repulsive.”
Fairbarn, an Ontario, Canada, resident, indicated in court papers that he earns a monthly income of $100,000.
Other attack at the resort habitat
The incident last week is not the first time someone has been accused of mistreating a bird at the Flamingo.
Justin Teixeira, then a University of California, Berkeley law student, beheaded a guinea fowl at the resort’s wildlife habitat in 2012. He was sentenced to probation and completed a 190-day “regimental discipline” program in the Nevada Department of Corrections.
Flamingos are federally protected birds, the police report said. The Flamingo resort’s Wildlife Habitat opened in 1995. It features streams, waterfalls, turtles and fish in addition to exotic birds, according to the resort’s website.
Moore said flamingos in the wild typically live for up to 30 years. In a protective habitat, like the one at the Flamingo, she said they can live to be as old as 50.
Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.
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