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The Miami-Dade Commission voted 5-4 to loosen current laws protecting peacocks, meaning the birds may soon be leaving some South Florida neighborhoods.
Some people love the birds; others loathe them becoming what is considered "the peafowl predicament," but long ago, the city took steps to make sure the birds aren't harmed in any way. The latest city council move will let individual cities get rid of them— if they do it humanely and receive approval first.
"I don't think anyone is interested in a peacock purge," Commission Raquel Regalado, who introduced the item, said in an emailed statement to Newsweek. "They have become iconic to Miami-Dade. But the law we passed 20 years ago had unintended consequences that tied everyone's hands. What we're doing now is to allow the cities to come up with the best humane management protocols that work for their neighborhoods."
The new item allows individual cities to opt out of the 20-year-old law, according to the Associated Press, which prohibits any person from taking a peafowl.
In this case, "'take' means taking, attempting to take, hunting, molesting, capturing, or killing any peafowl, their nests or eggs, by any means, whether or not such actions result in obtaining possession of peafowl or their nests or eggs," the ordinance says.
In a statement to Newsweek provided by Regalado's office, any previous offense was punishable with a $500 fine.
Regalado's office told Newsweek the birds have no natural predators in Miami-Dade, so over the past 20 years, certain neighborhoods have seen the number of birds increase. The new item will allow individual cities to develop their own removal methods.
However, residents in some areas have learned to live with the birds.
"They almost become a part of the community," said Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, who represents Palmetto Bay, which has designated itself a bird sanctuary to the AP. "I know our residents lose it when anyone harms any of these peacocks."
Some residents love the colorful birds, while others complain the peacocks are loud, often "screech[ing] from rooftops at 3 in the morning," according to NPR, are destructive, destroying cars and property, and are aggressive, especially during mating season.
Dr. James Dean, a wildlife trapper, told NPR even a man's new three-day car was destroyed by a male peacock during mating season.
"If you have a dark-colored vehicle," Dr. Dean says, "they'll attack the vehicle because they see the reflection. And they think it's another male taking over. And they just start pecking it and destroying a car."
Most trappers won't deal with the birds at all, NPR added, one man describing them as "ninja-like, able to leap over houses."
In 2020, the Miami City Commission voted unanimously to trap and remove some of the birds, according to NPR.
However, the option to relocate the birds is not always easy. Newsweek spoke to Regalado's office and learned the county has previously looked into the issue, but finding a sanctuary to take all peacocks has been challenging.
Additionally, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission prohibits releasing nonnative species into the wild, according to FloridaPolitics.com. That means the only solution is either killing the peafowls or finding another place to put them.
Although no one knows the exact number of peafowl living in the South Florida city Coconut Grove, the filmmakers behind "Peafowl Predicament: Friend or 'Foul'? interviewed researchers from Florida International University who estimate the number is between 650 to 1,500, according to the University of Miami's News@TheU.
