Peafowls prowl Palm Desert home

A pair of wandering peafowls were retrieved by animal services on Tuesday after eluding capture in a Palm Desert neighborhood for the past week.

John Welsh with Riverside County Animal Services said the birds had been creating problems for at least one family near Portola Avenue, often pecking at the front door and taking over the family dog’s bowl of food.

Several families reported the birds recently in the same general area, but officials said an animal control officer had been trying to retrieve the pesky peafowls since mid-March. One of the birds even leaped in front of a man driving a truck and brushed up against his windshield.

Animal control officers were called after that incident. The hen was okay, but quickly flew into a palm tree when the officer arrived to the scene. The pattern continued for months, with the birds evading capture by scaling walls, fluttering away and flying to elevated spots, Welsh said in the release.

Officials said the arduous task of capturing the peafowls became a not-so-funny joke amongst the animal control officer and her colleagues.

Welsh said they received a call from a frustrated woman Tuesday afternoon who had finally had enough of the birds taking over her property.

The woman said the birds were not hers, but she treated them well for a few days, feeding them bread and other snacks, but after a week she said they started thinking they ‘owned the joint’. She also joked, saying, ‘They had no shame’.

The animal control officer finally caught up with the peafowls on Tuesday when she recruited an official Peafowl Retrieval Team. The peafowls ran once again, but this time they ran out of real estate, becoming trapped in a carport, according to the release.

The female (peahen) and the male (peacock) were brought to the Coachella Valley Animal Campus in Thousand Palms where Welsh said they’re now resting comfortably.

The birds are being adopted by the owners of a local feed store.

Peafowls prowl Palm Desert home