The common peacock, also called Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), seen in the pic above, is not endangered. Least concern in fact.
The Green peafowl (pavo muticus) is endangered, but I highly doubt the Florida man had/ate that species. Much harder to acquire—I’ve never even seen it at a zoo.
I can’t find any mention of the specific species of peafowl the man had. My personal guess is that it’s just a stock image of a peacock. None of the articles below mention the species, but one does have the same mugshot.
The 61-year-old man from Hudson, Florida, was arrested last week on a third-degree felony charge of aggravated animal cruelty, according to an affidavit from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.
The man told investigators that he had killed the two peacocks because his neighbor kept feeding them. He had written the neighbor a letter telling her that he would continue to kill his pet peacocks if she kept feeding them “to prove a point,” according to the affidavit, which didn’t say how many peacocks he kept.
The man “admitted to killing the bird by cutting the bird’s neck out of spite, then bleeding it out, and then later eating the bird after cooking it on a frying pan,” the affidavit said.
So it doesn’t seem so simple as him merely getting arrested for deciding to eat one of his peafowl.
Killing an endangered animal and cruelty to animals are separate statutes. So I think it’s safe to safe it’s not an endangered peafowl.
I don’t care enough to pull the man’s actual court records and see if he was also charged with Intentional killing or wounding of any species designated as endangered, threatened, or of special concern.
If anyone wants to sleuth on this further, feel free.
Here’s the thing. You said “peacocks are endangered.” Is Green peafowl in the same genus? Yes. No one’s arguing that. As someone who is a scientist who studies peacocks, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls peacocks endangered. If you want to be “specific” like you said, then you shouldn’t either. They’re not the same thing. If you’re saying “peacocks” you’re referring to the taxonomic grouping of Pavonini, which includes things from indian peafowl to mbulus to green peafowl. So your reasoning for calling a peacocks endangered is because random people “call the ornamental birds peacocks?” Let’s get mandarin ducks in there, then, too. Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It’s not one or the other, that’s not how taxonomy works. They’re both. A green peafowl is a green peafowl and a member of the pavo genus. But that’s not what you said. You said peacocks are endangered, which is not true unless you’re okay with calling all members of the pavonini tribe endangered, which means you’d call indian peacocks, congo peafowl, and other peacocks endangered, too. Which you said you don’t. It’s okay to just admit you’re wrong, you know?
They recognized a blind spot in their knowledge, did some learning, then reported back with what they learned. Then you yelled at them? It’s not like they were being combative.
They posted a Wikipedia excerpt about a specific type of peafowl being endangered and said that people get other endangered animals so it wouldn’t be hard to get an endangered peacock.
At no point did they admit a blind spot in their knowledge. In fact they doubled down on their blind spot even though they were told the peacock in the article isn’t one of the endangered ones.
The common peacock, also called Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), seen in the pic above, is not endangered. Least concern in fact.
The Green peafowl (pavo muticus) is endangered, but I highly doubt the Florida man had/ate that species. Much harder to acquire—I’ve never even seen it at a zoo.
People get tigers and lions so I don’t think a peacock is much harder to acquire. Also according to Wikipedia:
Lol just admit you got it wrong, why argue? You said peacocks are endangered, and they’re not. Just say oops and move on.
I can’t find any mention of the specific species of peafowl the man had. My personal guess is that it’s just a stock image of a peacock. None of the articles below mention the species, but one does have the same mugshot.
https://apnews.com/article/peacocks-killed-florida-man-arrested-e1466f377234c6bc30f3c761c09f4607
https://nypost.com/2025/09/30/us-news/florida-man-arrested-for-allegedly-killing-cooking-and-eating-pet-peacocks/
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-man-eats-pet-peacocks-dispute-neighbor-feeding-them-craig-vogt-pasco-county-sheriffs-office-tampa-bay/
Quoting the AP article,
So it doesn’t seem so simple as him merely getting arrested for deciding to eat one of his peafowl.
Killing an endangered animal and cruelty to animals are separate statutes. So I think it’s safe to safe it’s not an endangered peafowl.
I don’t care enough to pull the man’s actual court records and see if he was also charged with Intentional killing or wounding of any species designated as endangered, threatened, or of special concern.
If anyone wants to sleuth on this further, feel free.
Here’s the thing. You said “peacocks are endangered.” Is Green peafowl in the same genus? Yes. No one’s arguing that. As someone who is a scientist who studies peacocks, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls peacocks endangered. If you want to be “specific” like you said, then you shouldn’t either. They’re not the same thing. If you’re saying “peacocks” you’re referring to the taxonomic grouping of Pavonini, which includes things from indian peafowl to mbulus to green peafowl. So your reasoning for calling a peacocks endangered is because random people “call the ornamental birds peacocks?” Let’s get mandarin ducks in there, then, too. Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It’s not one or the other, that’s not how taxonomy works. They’re both. A green peafowl is a green peafowl and a member of the pavo genus. But that’s not what you said. You said peacocks are endangered, which is not true unless you’re okay with calling all members of the pavonini tribe endangered, which means you’d call indian peacocks, congo peafowl, and other peacocks endangered, too. Which you said you don’t. It’s okay to just admit you’re wrong, you know?
A peacock is a crow.
Here’s the thing… I’ll allow it.
I think you mean jackdaw
Damn, Unidan in Lemmy? Who woulda thought.
They’re all Unidan down here
They recognized a blind spot in their knowledge, did some learning, then reported back with what they learned. Then you yelled at them? It’s not like they were being combative.
Did we read different comments?
They posted a Wikipedia excerpt about a specific type of peafowl being endangered and said that people get other endangered animals so it wouldn’t be hard to get an endangered peacock.
At no point did they admit a blind spot in their knowledge. In fact they doubled down on their blind spot even though they were told the peacock in the article isn’t one of the endangered ones.