I was horrified that Paignton Zoo saw fit to kill 7 Peacocks - WHY did they not seek to rehome them??!! There is a Peacock Rescue centre in the UK, and surely the Zoo would know this?

It is disturbing to know that this is not the first cull that has occurred either - just how many Peacocks have they killed in the past?

There was absolutely no need for this whatsoever. The Zoo should not be allowed to keep Peacocks if they cannot take responsibility for their welfare, and as for the neighbour who constantly complained - how sad they are!

jane walker, uttoxeter, UK

I live next to Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire,the Castle Peacocks spend all year with us,we share our garden with them all.Why slaughter them when there are rescue centres scattered around especially for Peacocks.
Slaughtering them was not the answer.
I fear the zoo has done themselves more harm.
As for the person who complained.........I expect the same person would complain about lambs bleating.
For a zoo to do this is staggering,this is not a zoo I will be visiting in the future.

Debs Jackson, Burton On Trent, UK

I personally find some of these comments obsurd!!! one comment made by a torquay resident is rather silly. I am sure that the keepers would love to rehome those animals however it isnt like buying a hamster from a pet shop! Unfortunatly there are many regulations which do not allow you to just simply take home a bird or perhaps pop a snake in your pocket. Please be realistic. As we were not at the zoo at time of culling we cannot be totally sure what was done to try and prevent this. Perhaps nothing who knows but that still doesnt mean that some keepers especially those who worked with the peacocks were not upset and perhaps outraged by the culling. So to slate all those who work there is unfair. As karen said for the zoo, animals are business. Which is very sad considering that not how it should be. The keepers who work there are there for thier love for the animals and to give them the best they can whilst there! doesnt mean we agree with certain powers that be.!

Katie, Devon,

I have visited Paignton zoo several times, for them to kill any animal is absolutely poor management, this is one zoo me or any of my family will visit again. 2 complaints is not enough to justify killing an innocent animal, the animals welfare should be first, isn't that what a zoo is supposed to do, put their animals first.

T. Wotton ANimal Behaviourist, Teignmouth. , South Devon

I don't think anyone is qualified to comment on this matter unless they have experienced being kept awake for 6 weeks by screeching peacocks. Saying that, surely they could've just moved them somewhere else. If not hopefully some use was made of their remains, like a Peacock pie or a nice hat.

R.I.Peacock

DJ, Humberside, United Kingdom

I used to live in Paignton, and have visited the Zoo on many occasions, but not again! but it begs the question if you don't like the neighbourhood why not MOVE rather than force the birds to be killed, there are many areas of Paignton and Torbay where you Don't hear the peacocks!

Ian Morgan, Brynsadler, Wales

This is obviously a poorly maintained zoo if they cannot contain and maintain half a dozen birds for six weeks. Absolutely insane that they chose to kill them.

Kurt, Regina, SK,

Peacocks are living things, like us and equal to us.
Mr. Clark, are you nuts, or just very liberal?
Peacocks are not equal to us.
They shouldn't have been killed. It's wrong to
change things because one person has a problem.

Swanny, Minnetonka, USA MN

I am horrified by this killing of these beautiful and innocent birds and the shedding of "crocodile tears" by the zoo. Sure, some of the staff there will be genuinely upset at this action but not those who made the decision. The zoo did not have to take this extreme and cruel action it was not forced upon them. Two complaints do not make for a death sentence. This is not the first time that Paignton Zoo has done something like this (although in the past the public have not become aware of it) and maybe it is time that some of their actions are investigated. The zoo and the birds were there a long time before the houses were built so why move there if you don't like the conditions and why have they not complained before. My heart goes out to those residents who loved the birds and felt honoured by their presence.

Wendy Reader, Coventry, England

I am disgusted that the peacocks had to be culled. Peacocks are living things, like us and equal to us. The noises made by the animals were natural, if the neighbour could put up with the cars, lorries and other loud city noises then I think he could certainly put up with some peacocks making some noise. I would gladly welcome the peacocks cries if i lived there.

Ben Clark, London, UK

Whilst I acknowledge that, in this story, there was no legal case, the law really needs changing. In common law, if you move to a nuisance, you can take it to court and get it removed. We have had ridiculous cases of cricket clubs having to erect huge fences, farmers having to silence cows and cockerels, and churches having to stop ringing bells, all because of people moving to the area from outside.

I hope the selfish people who repeatedly complained of the noise learn how to grow up and take responsibility for their decisions of where to live - if you don't like the neighbours, move. Many people would love to live near a zoo.

Jeremy Wickins MA, LLB, Sheffield, UK

They were killed by lethal injection? Does that mean that they were then not fit to eat? If it does, it sounds mad. Why not wring their necks?
Lots of people would pay good money to have roast Peacock. I certainly would.

Herbert Thornton, Victoria, Canada

I am entirely in sympathy with the neighbours who complained about the peacocks. In Nigeria I lived next door to an important politico who kept about 20 of these wretched birds. Each evening they would flock into my garden and attack my plants whilst making the most hideous noise. Peacocks need to be kept very well away from ordinary human habitation.

Richard White, Chiang Mai,

Unfortunately, every town has its own rules of what constitues "noise." I lived in a southern Adrirondack mill town--big trucks going by every day by the score, logs being tumbled about like tinker toys in the mill yard, loud and raunchous bars every weekend...yet, on this self-same street, it's the church bells ringing on Sundays, that are banned.

One person's noise is another person's joy.

It is a pity about the birds, but quite frankly, the way the article is written, it doesn't sound like this zoo worked very hard on a non-letal solution...If other places can confine their birds during the season, why can't this zoo?

Nancy, Glens Falls, USA NY

Wait on, it's a ZOO, isn't it? Thye could get some tiger poo (or the poo of whatever animal eats peacocks) and dump it on the area where they don't want the peacocks to be.

SIMPLE!!!

Poo Solutions, Sydney, Australia

20 yrs ago these 2 moaning people would have been told to put it in perspective and stop waisting the councils time. Now, thanks to political correctness and pandering to anyone who has the smallest of issues they have caused some beautiful creatures to be destroyed. I hope their neighbours never speak to them again. I know i wouldn't!

David Parr, brixham, devon, UK

Bradd Roberts, excellent solution, why haven't you offered to help them move and buy their homes...?

Robert Bradds, Torquay, UK

I'm amazed at all the fuss. 7 dead peacocks and so many people are acting like it matters. The things breed like rabbits and make an awful din (for far more than 6 weeks of the year!).

The zoo probably has had peacocks for years, for longer than the neighbours maybe. But the fact is they probably had fewer than 10 just a decade or so ago and now have over a hundred. (As I said, peacocks breed fast if in a safe environment).

The din made by 100 peacocks, wow!

The disgrace is that the zoo has let the animals run riot in such a way, and not laid in a suitable culling program.

The comment below by a 'former keeper' explains a lot.

Pete, Bristol, UK

That sucks... Those are beautiful birds.
If this happens again, ship them to me. They can live in the field in my back yard.

Brad, Greenwood, Louisiana, USA

Didn't anyone ever hear of a fence, or chicken-wire? Stupidity all around.

DLC, Toronto, Canada

I am quite surprised that a solution of containment couldn't be utilized for 6 weeks, death is niether a compromise , nor a solution to cohabitation . . . the shame is on all that lauded this as a solution. Use your imagination next time and think outside the fence like the peacocks

Janice Strand, Rufus, USA / Oregon

i'm really sorry to hear this, peacock call, I think are some of the best sounds in the world. What confuses me is the avian flu issue. It all seems too much.

Bill , vancouver, B.C.

Thankfully, peacocks don't have councils and they don't cull humans.

Suresh, Chennai, India

I live in an area with a lot of introduced peacocks, they are very annoying. If you have ever heard these awful birds scream you would understand the argument of the neighbors.

Isn't the job of the zoo to keep the animals with in the confines of the zoo to limit damage to personal property?

kevin, Los Angeles, CA

I am absolutley horrified about this. Those poor peacocks should not have been killed just because a human decided they were making irritating noises a few weeks in the year. You don't kill something for making too much noise or because a fewpeople complain for that matter.
I wake up every morning to the squaking of at lest 5 sea gulls on my roof and it was probably the same with this person, i don't see why the peacocks had to be killed. We wouldn't do the same to seagulls and everyone complains about them.
I think the zoo is just as bad for offering to kill them, I think if they were mypeacocks then i'd have just cut down the tree first to see if the intrest in the area was lost first and if that failed i'd still fight like hell to keep them i mean whoever complained about this is just ridiculous and i hope that he feels ashamed of himself!!!

amy robson, paignton, devon

And I thought it was bad having six of them next door screaming at all hours, I could only imagine 100 of them. I feel for the people who complained, Peacocks are a very annoying bird this time of year.

Greg, Oak Harbor, US

Who ever made these repeated complaints needs a sanity check.

Zoo's are about conservation, rehabilitation and animal welfare. If you do not like these things, don't be selfish.. MOVE.

Perhaps I should complain repeatedly to our council to have some of the noisy locals culled. They make loud noises all year round, not 6 weeks.

Stewart Setter, Basildon, Essex

I think if buy a property that ajoins such an establishment you have to right to complain!
Especially an establishment with living creatures. peacocks have been at paignton since the start - they have a right to life & they were at the property prior to residents moving in next door. Ridiculous, selfish people!
I have house near an airport - I chose to live here - i put up with the noise!

ca, devon,

This story makes me angry. As a former keeper of Paignton zoo, these are not the first peacocks they have culled and I doubt they will be the last, these are the only ones reported. When i worked there they 'murdered' several peacocks-never to be mentioned in the press, no tears shed, and no dignified ending, they had their necks wrung. They not only didn't try to rehome them i offered to rehome one and was ignored. They showed what can only be described as contempt for their actions.
Animals are a business-they say if you love animals don't work with them, i found this to be very true during my time there. The zoo do a lot of good and many there are genuinely caring and hard workers-there are two sides to every coin, do you really think the neighbours suggested this action to solve the problem-or do you think they are as horrified as the rest of us only more so to think they're responsible. Don't be too hasty to point the fingers at the neighbours...

karen duffield, Torquay, Devon

Why is the complainants view valid exactly? They live next door to a zoo. If they don't like the noise, move. It's exactly like "x is offended by..." - just because someone is offended by something, or finds it annoying, does not make their complain valid. Trevor Philips finds everything on earth offensive to black people, it does not make his decision to be offended valid. They put the wrong creatures down. I hope this disgraceful neighbour is hounded into oblivion by zoo visitors and the other neighbours.

HG, London, UK

I would want to know if the peacocks were present when the complaining residents moved in. If they were NOT present then the residents have every right to complain. However, if they were present, then the residents don't have a leg to stand on.

Colin, Wokingham, UK

Seven animals needlessly killed because two people cannot tolerate their mating calls for six weeks out of fifty-two.

Nice work there, squeaky wheels. Hope you're real proud of yourselves.

Rat, Taunton, Somerset UK

What fools the council are, and the complaining citizen. If the neighborhood children made a lot of noise, would they also insist on a cull?

Has this Zoo been there longer than the houses built next to it? If so, then the neighbor should be the one to move, as they knew what they wwere moving next to.
I certainly hope that no endangered species make noise.

Joshua, Oxford, UK

Excuse me? Isn't it up to the neighbours to move? They don't have to live next to a zoo, you know.

starling, Lancaster,

It must have been a helluva shock to buy a house next to a zoo and find that they kept animals there.

Ken Wyatt, Todmorden, UK

if the zoo staff were so upset why didnt one of them home the birds? how many other animals are killed at the zoo when theyre no longer wanted?

sue, torquay,

i think that is terrible that a couple of moody people want them dead because there talking imagine if you were a peacock about to die. if they have a problem then tell them to move

bradd roberts, torquay, uk

As someone who grew up in Devon and visited the zoo often I loved to see the peacocks. I am assuming that there are other animals at the zoo that make alot of noise, elephants, lions etc are they to be next? Of course not. But the point is just as those who move next to an airport should expect noise so should those who move next to a zoo!! It is always a shame when one selfish person (who in my opinion be ashamed of themselves) causes the deaths of seven birds. If you don't like the noise animals make don't move next to a zoo. It's simple

helen, wrexham, wrexham

Never mind that the zoo irresponsibly kept these peacocks in a residential area in the first place - and it's the peacocks that have paid for this irresponsibility with their lives.

So much for Paignton Zoo's concern for animal welfare!

Peter Anderson, Plymouth,