When I was a kid, my parents decided that it wasn’t enough to keep horses, chickens, dogs and cats – they wanted something more exotic. They procured a half-dozen peachicks and we raised them in a cardboard box under a lightbulb until the pullets were big enough to live in the barn.
One thing you’ll notice about peacocks and peahens is the tiny, tiny head. Naturally, this houses a tiny, tiny brain – one that fixates mainly on food, especially if you’ve trained its owner to view you as a food source. We quickly learned that hand-raising peafowl resulted in free-range, food-seeking menaces. Every time we went outside to work, garden or simply sit in our grape arbor, there came the peacocks, begging for treats.
That would have been fine, except that the older and more aggressive they got, the more they began to demand food rather than hint about it. Eventually they’d just attack anyone who dared set foot outside. I think I may still have talon scars from our peacock, Scruffy, jumping on my back as I mowed one day.
Aggression alone doesn’t make peacocks bad pets. You have to also take into account the screeching and walking around on the roof that terrifies babysitters. Then there are the giant lumps of poo they leave everywhere they go, including all over the family cars (which really left the full service gas station attendants wondering).
One of the most frustrating things about peacocks is their lack of self-preservation sense. I clearly remember going out to the barn after an ice storm and seeing a row of peafowl perched along the peak of the barn roof, coated in ice. They survived, but wouldn’t it have been smarter to just go inside?
So here’s my question for you today: What animal have you ever owned that really wasn’t suitable as a pet? Discuss amongst yourselves – I’m off to work.
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