Canadian man guilty of animal cruelty after stealing a flamingo in Las Vegas as a drunken joke

Surveillance footage used by police to show a Canadian man in an elevator returning to a hotel room with a flamingo stolen from the hotel's bird habitat. (Photo: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)

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The Canadian man accused of stealing and injuring a flamingo in a Las Vegas hotel in March has been found guilty of animal cruelty.

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Mitchell Fairbarn, 34, from Ontario was charged with two counts of animal cruelty, one stemming from his treatment of the animal, known as Peachy, while it was still in its habitat, the second for his treatment of the bird in the hotel back in March, reports KVVU, the Fox News affiliate in Las Vegas.

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Peachy is a Chilean flamingo that had been kept in an enclosure at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.

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The prosecutors opened Fairbarn’s trial by showing surveillance video, photos and Snapchat clips showing him smiling, laughing and grabbing the flamingo by the neck, while he was with two friends. Video then showed him walking to the hotel elevator alone in the hallway, holding Peachy.

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Fairbarn said he had traveled to Las Vegas to attend ConExpo, an international construction exhibition, reports Newsweek.

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During his testimony, Fairbarn spoke about having experience with animals. He said he grew up on a farm, owns dogs and a parrot, and said he previously rescued an abandoned llama and six ducks. He attempted to use that experience to explain why he entered the Flamingo hotel’s wildlife habitat during the early morning hours of March 3. He claimed he noticed that the flamingo had uneven wings. And then he claimed he went inside the enclosure thinking something might be wrong with Peachy.

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Michael Fairburn has been convicted of two counts of animal cruelty after police say he stole a flamingo from a hotel and casino where he was staying, then took the bird back to his room and injured it. (Credit: LVMPD)

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Investigators presented a different picture, reports Newsweek, with surveillance footage showing a shirtless Fairburn handling the flamingo by its neck and legs. Police said photographs and video recovered from Fairbarn’s phone showed him aggressively choking the bird and throwing it to the floor.

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Investigators said Fairbarn laughed in one clip, while saying he was “taking the bird home.” A “large bloody feather” was later found in his hotel room. Animal control officials said Peachy suffered a wing injury that required stitches and testified that the wing had been pulled from the bird’s body.

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Fairbarn denied having any malicious intent to hurt or kill the bird. Instead, he testified that he took Peachy as a drunken “silly pranky joke” after drinking between 30 and 40 beers.

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Fairbarn also spoke about how his family has been affected by news of the incident, including break-ins, death threats and his children having to change schools.

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Peachy has been doing well physically since the incident. Fairburn remains under house arrest and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1.

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