Surrey council approves move to trap, move wild peacocks
The dozens of majestic-looking peacocks and the peahens that have called a Surrey neighbourhood home for more than 10 years are to be trapped and shipped to the pound.
That was the recommendation of the city’s bylaw enforcement team — and approved by council on Monday night — who studied the Sullivan Heights neighbourhood where public safety operations manager Jas Rehal said the birds have been living since 2006.
The corporate report noted that some residents would like the “ostentation” or “muster” of birds to remain where they are and others want them gone. Rehal said it’s about “50-50.”
But he said an investigation by staff, triggered by an increase in complaints after a homeowner cut down the birds’ biggest roost in a large tree on his yard, found that because of the noise, excrement, property damage and aggressive behaviour of the birds, “staff recognized the negative impact to safety and property caused by the nuisance peafowl.”
The report cited a “high number of daily calls, emails and complaints,” which Rehal said were about three or four dozen over the past three months.
The city will trap the estimated 100 birds in a “phased in approach” and transport them to the Surrey Animal Resource Centre for a “medical evaluation.”
Rehal said they would remain at the pound like any other animal that ends up there until a home could be found for them.
But the birds have to be caught first.
The report noted that two U.S. cities — one in Florida, another in California — had a similar problem and never captured and relocated all the birds.
“They are difficult to trap and there are limited options for containing them,” said Rehal in the report.
Surrey animal advocate Roslyn Cassells, who said she is running for Surrey council this fall, disputed the city staff ’s findings that the birds are a threat to public safety.
She said there are only 48 of them, they’ve lived in that area since 1976 and that 95 per cent of the residents support letting them stay.
“They’re actually not doing any harm,” she said. “Why don’t we learn to coexist with them?” She said she’s spoken with many residents who oppose relocation.
Rehal said city staff would trap birds on public land and residents will be provided with humane traps to catch the birds on their property and bylaw officers would pick them up. He said officers would have the authority to enter private property if necessary. The goal is to remove all the birds and it would take months to complete.
He said the city would put up signs, increase enforcement with “zero tolerance,” and hand out immediate fines for $250 for feeding or $450 for housing a peafowl.
So far, the city has handed out fewer than 10 $250 fines and two $450 fines, both to the same resident.
The city has plans for a neighbourhood meeting July 12 to explain the plan.
The man who cut down the tree without a permit was fined $1,000 and an investigation continues and he faces a possible $10,000 fine. And police are continuing to investigation an assault of a bylaw officer who entered a homeowner property over a feeding complaint.