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Some see only the plumage, fanned out in a feathery rainbow. For others, it's all about the noise, and oh, that mess!
By ROBERT FARLEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 2, 2002
CLEARWATER -- Roger Rohm used to get a kick out of the peacocks and peahens that wandered his neighborhood.
He even used to feed them.
But in the past decade, the 14 or so birds around Rohm's Greenbriar development just north of Clearwater have multiplied to more than 100. Cars filled with gawkers regularly crawl through the neighborhood just to view the spectacular plumage.
The peacocks are undeniably pretty. But they also have a disarmingly harsh squawk, particularly during mating season, which is around this time of year. Think Fran Drescher, from the 1990s sitcom The Nanny.
Now, the beautiful and noisy birds have clawed a schism in this suburban enclave, pitting nature lovers against light sleepers, neighbors against neighbors.
"It's turning rather volatile," said Susan Sander, a peacock proponent. "If it bothers you that much, then move. That's the solution."
Rohm, for one, has had enough of the birds. He was so upset he got nearly 200 people to sign a petition asking the neighborhood association, the Greenbriar Club, to get rid of some of the peacocks.
He found a sympathetic ear in club president Stan Passer, who likened the peacocks' call to "a woman in the night yelling for help." Passer addressed the "Peacock Issue" in the April edition of the Greenbriar Bulletin.
"They ARE beautiful," Passer wrote, "but they are also destructive to flower gardens, car paint and a peaceful night's sleep, especially now during their breeding season."
The club decided not to take action. But it allowed Rohm and other like-minded neighbors to take matters into their own hands, on their own property.
Rohm, 59, found someone to give him a trap and a holding pen and a farm near Lakeland to relocate the birds.
He was in business.
Problem is many of his neighbors are outraged that someone would take it upon themselves to eradicate a neighborhood institution. Rumors began to spread that dozens of birds were being captured late at night and that they were being killed. One woman even called the Sheriff's Office.
But peacock detractors list a host of sins:
The birds are aggressive and messy. They scratch and peck cars when they see their reflection and think it's a turf war. They have been known to fall through screened enclosures around pools. They go to the bathroom on roofs and driveways. They occasionally hold up traffic.
And they are noisy.
Detractors blame neighbors for luring the birds to their front yards by feeding them. At the very least, some say, the ranks must be thinned.
Supporters consider the birds a privilege. They say the nuisances are overblown.
Annoying? They make good watchdogs.
Messy? Nothing that can't be washed off the driveway with a hose.
Noisy? Only during the day, or unless they are spooked by something at night.
"To me, it's a treat to have them here," said Lee Malone.
"The way I feel," said Mrs. Malone, 78, "is that they are like the Indians. They were here first. We moved in here, and now we're trying to move them out. It's not right."
The birds certainly predate most humans in the area. In the late 1920s, there was a peacock farm on the Dunedin/Clearwater border, said Vinnie Luisi, executive director of the Dunedin Historical Museum. The peacocks were raised for their tail feathers, which were popular with fashion models.
But a combination of the high cost of maintaining peafowl and the Great Depression spelled the farm's doom. When the farm went belly-up, many of the peafowl were simply let loose.
Over the decades, the peafowl have become a fixture that draws visitors to the Dunedin Historical Cemetery. The birds strut among the gravestones of some of Dunedin's founding families.
Rohm said he has caught only one peacock.
He tries to lure the peafowl to the cage with ocean fish cat food or bread. The cage also has a mirror in the back to fool a bird into thinking its reflection is another bird.
But catching them is difficult and time-consuming. It requires someone to stand guard. Rohm, who operates an upholstery business in Dunedin, said he doesn't have time to catch any more, but some neighbors have offered to take up the mantle.
He would like to relocate about half the peafowl, perhaps 50 birds. There's no way they could get rid of them all, he said.
The peacock Rohm caught recently was taken to the 21/2-acre property of Joseph Koovackal near Lakeland. Koovackal said Wednesday he keeps a half dozen peafowl as pets. The peacock is the national bird of India, Koovackal said, and as a native of India he would never harm one.
Local and state animal agencies want no part of them.
"We don't do peacocks," said Gary Morse, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "They are not wildlife. They are domestic livestock."
Pinellas County's Animal Control Division agrees, although both encourage the relocation effort.
Neighbors can be assured of one thing, Rohm said. None of the peafowl will be killed.
"I'm not going to jail for these things," he said.