Peacocks causing trouble again

Peacocks are multiplying in the Longbeach Village again.

Longbeach Village Association President Michael Drake informed Commissioner Gene Jaleski the Village has hired a company to remove peacocks from the neighborhood in early December, and again in mid-December if needed.

“I will not stop until we get down to a dozen birds,” Drake wrote in an e-mail to Jaleski.

Ben Feole, a director and ex-president of the Longbeach Village Association, said the peacocks multiplied in huge numbers this summer.

“There’s quite a few birds in the Village, and they seem to be everywhere you look as opposed to previous years,” Feole said.

Jaleski said there’s more than 30 peacocks in the Village to date.

Drake said the Village association has spent about $650 to date to quell the number of birds in the neighborhood.

In May, The Longboat Key Town Commission gave the association $2,400 to reduce a bird population that had grown to more than 60 birds. The commission made the decision after hearing that 1978 commission minutes reflect that the town agreed to help keep the peacock population to a limit of 12 birds.

While some residents of the Village are always upset to see the birds go, many fulltime residents are not sad to bid farewell because they say the birds disrupt traffic, tear up gardens and leave morning bathroom presents on front porches.

Drake urged the commission for help and said the birds, which are a popular tourism attraction for visitors, are a life and safety issue because people feed the birds along Broadway and cause traffic congestion.

“Several Village residents are eager for the peacocks to be removed so that they can return to a normal life in paradise,” Jaleski said.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].