‘Poop all over the place’: Free-roaming peacocks anger Vancouver Island neighbourhood

They’re loud, they poop and they’re running wild.

Now, residents of a North Cowichan neighbourhood say they’ve had enough of the peacocks that have made a home of their community.

“They go almost 24/7. We sleep with the windows closed and I even have to wear ear muffs because I am not a sound sleeper,” homeowner Dick Zandee said.

“Peacocks have a very interesting sex life, they seem to have about a six-month mating season. And of course, that’s when they’re the loudest and most aggressive.”

Zandee alleged the owners of a neighbouring farm acquired the peacocks sometime after 2015, and the birds’ numbers have grown to nearly 12 since then.

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Neighbours say they roam freely in the area, keeping people awake at night and making a mess on their patios and roofs.

“They go to the bathroom wherever they feel like it, they are in my vegetable garden … they quite like my fountain,” neighbour Mona Anderson said.

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“If it was dogs in the neighbourhood that came and went in my flower beds and my gardens and left poop all over the place, they would be taken away.”

Global News was unable to reach the farm’s owners for comment.

Zandee said a group of neighbours has taken the issue to the local bylaw department but was told the farm owners disputed their ownership of the birds.

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The municipality has since lent them a live trap to try and catch the birds for relocation.

“It’s a huge trap. It’s made for I guess a bear or dogs. You have to see them go in there because you have to pull a rope,” Zandee said.

He said he was able to catch two of the birds last year and is hoping to capture more.

“They are beautiful birds and nobody wants to see harm brought to them, that’s not what this is about. This is about quality of life,” Anderson said.

“That’s all we’re asking is that they be relocated and try and make everyone’s life a little more peaceful here.”