Wayne Newton Vegas Neighborhood Under Attack By Peacocks
Wayne Newton’s Las Vegas neighbors are not saying “Danke Schoen” when it comes to his marauding flock of aggressive peafowl who have claimed the neighborhood as their territory. Wayne Newton’s ranch has reportedly had peacocks and other exotic animals since the 1960s, but neighbors are saying they don’t stay put on Newton’s property, and they are a nuisance.
Peafowl (peacocks are male, peahens are female, and the collective is peafowl) are an issue, but like with chickens and game birds, the males can be the most aggressive, so peacocks are a bigger problem in Newton’s neighborhood than the peahens. And even though peacocks are pretty large, they can fly overhead. PageSix says the locals are pretty freaked out. Neighbors say that the peafowl roam the neighborhood, squawking, causing traffic disturbances, and scratching their cars.
April Juelke says the first time the peacocks were on her roof, she didn’t know what it was.
“We heard something on our roof that scared us to death. We thought a burglar was breaking in, but it was a bunch of peacocks.”
Juelke says the peafowl roost at night up at Wayne Newton’s ranch. Other neighbors say their dogs have gotten intestinal parasites from the peafowl droppings.
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Wayne Newton’s attorney Jay Brown says that the peacocks aren’t their responsibility, because they have never bought any peafowl.
“We’ve never bought a peacock. We’ve never brought in a peacock.”
It seems that when Wayne Newton bought the ranch, there were already peafowl there, so they are not responsible.
“Casa de Shenandoah is officially home to about 25 peafowl that are tagged and live in an enclosure.”
The peafowl causing all the trouble are feral peafowl.
“These are feral peacocks. It’s a neighborhood problem, not a Newton problem, in fairness.”
"Gang of peacocks running amok near singer Wayne Newton’s Las Vegas ranch" https://t.co/98LOF1othg #VegasProblems #dankeschön pic.twitter.com/nCFtCXjhtG
— Las Vegas Locally ? (@LasVegasLocally) November 14, 2016
But neighbor Bart Donovan told the Las Vegas Review Journal that he doesn’t see it that way, because the birds came from Wayne Newton’s property.
“These things were born on the Newton property, they live there, they roost there at night. As far as I’m concerned, they’re their birds.”
What is making the situation worse is the lifespan of peafowl, which is about twenty years. Commissioner Mary Beth Scow says she went out to the neighborhood around the Wayne Newton ranch to check it out, and can see if a plan isn’t put in place, it will just get worse.
“My view is if we don’t stay on top of this, it will become more of a problem because the animals do breed. I know when I was out there I saw several young peafowl.”
So a plan needs to be put in place that will require the whole community, and everyone, including Wayne Newton, is on board with removing the wild peafowl. But at a local town hall meeting, a half hour was spent talking about the peacocks with no solution reached. It seems animal control doesn’t have the staff, and only one cage big enough, and if the peafowl are trapped, then it couldn’t be decided what should happen next.
Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Doug Nielsen says there is nothing his agency can do. He likened the issue to someone getting a duckling, and setting it loose in a park after it’s grown.
Part of the reason the problem exists is because somewhere along the line, someone just dropped them off. At this point, the community is going to have to figure it out and decide what they want to do.”
Wayne Newton's peacocks at Shenandoah are annoying the neighbors!https://t.co/f5JAmwD34u pic.twitter.com/j0wLLkBX1I
— VIPtix .com (@VIP_TIX) November 14, 2016
Out of frustration, neighbor Bart Donovan made a homemade trap out of batting cage netting. He has caught twenty-one in the last month, and re-homed them out of state. Council member Scow says animal control is working with Casa Shenandoah to trap the birds on a rotating basis, and giving the birds to the Animal Foundation.
“We didn’t give a specific method (of removal); we just gave that direction. There has been progress, and we continue to expect there will progress so this neighborhood will no longer have this problem. That’s our goal.”
Have you ever seen a peacock fly?
[Featured Image by David Hallett/Getty Images]
